removed by the benefit of Vulcan so as it is impossible if they be methodically used that they should either destroy the native heat and Spirits the individual guards of the Soul or infer on the principal parts a depraved disposition And thus hitherto is shown how under a false pretext Chymical Remedies are as it were dangerous unprofitable and pestiferous and so the Cities right in the Re-publique of Medicine is denyed Now that they are more wholsome and more safe than the vulgar is to be proved which indeed by what hath been already said is sufficiently manifested nevertheless that all things may be the better judged of Spagyrick Medicaments are more wholsome and more safe than the vulgar some few things to back our assertion seem to be needful Remedies prepared by the Spagyrick Art are therefore more salubrious and more safe than the vulgar or the same after the common and vulgar manner prepared because in them the pure is separated from the impure the Alexipharmacon from the malignity the Corporeal from the Spiritual and the unprofitable from the commodious and so with their bulkiness they oppress not the Stomach nor do they delay or defer their Operations but immediately begin to assault the Diseases and speedily compel them to forsake their strong-holds in humane bodies So Beer that hath sufficiently purged is better and more wholsome than what hath not purged Wine cleansed from its Tartar is more safely drunk than Wine newly prest from the Grape So food the Excrements secluded by nature after many Coctions nourish all the members of our bodies Sooner doth the water or Balsom of Cinnamon in swounings refresh the Spirits than the Cinnamon whole Likewise some drops of Oil of Anise are more efficacious than whole Ounces of the same unprepared But the vulgar mind despiseth all preparations and had rather use things whole than dissolved into their principles wherefore he adhibits Medicines partly not sufficient or convenient whence it often happens that the sick having devoured the noxious excrementitious and venomous parts together with the salubrious and profitable the Disease being overcome they are soon after afflicted with symptoms more grievous and more dangerous than the disease it self Moreover who knows not that Chymical waters retain the intire odour and taste of Vegetables but the vulgar waters are no other than unprofitable phlegm and waters easily putrefying and those will dure many years but these scarcely a Moneth or two And as the vulgar waters of Pharmacopoly's acquire an extream malignity from the Leaden vessels so their decoctions in Copper vessels are no less contaminated which are so much the worse also because in their preparation the more subtile and better parts vanish into Air and a little after through mouldiness contracted they are corrupted and rendred unprofitable Also their Restoratives and Cordials which are prepared of Corals and Pearls reduced to powder and sifted as also of foliate Gold what other virtue do they manifest in the humane body than the incrusting of the Ventricle and otherwise rendring it more languished and unapt to perform its office Whereas on the contrary Quintessences of Chymists and Magisterys by them confected as also Tinctures of Gold made without Corrosives easily dissolved in any Liquor these so dissolved being admitted into the body renew decayed strength and restore to pristine vigour Also vulgar Medicaments in Chronical diseases seldom produce the desired effects being only taken from Vegetables with which they are unable totally to extirpate and pluck up the setled Roots of contumacious affects But Chymical Remedies especially those prepared of Metals and Minerals being of more potent force and of great efficacy do throughly cure Distempers vulgarly uncureable as the epilepsie leprosie quartane fever gout Dropsie c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is pleasantly speedily and safely We therefore thought what we have done not impertinent to our purpose namely in the Frontise-piece of our Book to define Chymistry and demonstrate it to an Art of preparing the most grateful salubrious and safe medicaments CHAP. II. Of Solution in Genere CHymical Solution is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Solution is or an Operation wherein the natural mixt body by separation of the Hetrogeneal parts is deduced into its own three Principles viz. Mercury Sulphur and Salt of which by Nature it was at first made As Aristotle of the Natural body hath truly stated three principles viz. Matter Form and Privation although they be rather Noetick than truly hypostatick and as Galen the four Elements viz. Fire Air The three Chymical principles Water Earth for principles although they be remote yet are they not wholly by him unproperly cited so the Chymist the intelligent Artificer affirms there are 3 sensible and most near principles of sensible bodies viz. Mercury Sulphur and Salt and in this part follows Aristotle of the third Heaven Text 61. Which place Peter Ramus in the Acroamatick Schools doth over strenuously oppose against the above alledged principles of the Phylosopher and after him Kragius doth vehemently contrary the Peripateticks But by Mercury What by them is to be understood Sulphur and Salt it is not to be understood that Minerals of this kind can by the benefit of Chymical resolution be extracted from mixt and concrete bodies I mean such as are vulgarly sold by Merchants Yet it sufficeth that they are such especially being in the family of Vegetables and Animals which are analogous and have affinity with Minerals and do so far differ among themselves in Essence Property and Actions as they are in their kind more or less Mineral Mercury Mercury is that Acid permeable penetrable Aethereal and most pure Liquor whence is all nutrition sense motion virtues colours and the retardation of over hasty age It is made of the Element of Air and Water and indeed to the first as far as it is altered by approaching heat it vanishes into air but as to the other so far as it is d fficultly bounded in its own proper limits it is easily contained in another Terminum Sulphur Sulphur is a sweet oleaginous and viscid Balsom conserving the native heat of the parts the instrument of all vegetation increase and transmutation and the fountain and original of all odours grateful and ingrateful It is assimilated to fire by reason of the flame which it easily conceives as all other resinous and oleaginous things And this peculiar property it hath The property of Sulphur viz. a power of pacifying and conglutinating extream contrarys For as you can never make tenacious Luting of water and sand unless with them you commix Galx or other glutinous matter so neither can volatile Mercury and fixed Salt be tenaciously united into one substance unless by the bond and copulation of Sulphur which participates of either principle It contemperates the dryness of Salt and Liquidity of Mercury by its own viscosity the density of Salt and the permeability of Mercury by its own soft
so as the silver is visible on the superficies and in one vein shootings of pure gold may be beheld Although there be some who by reason of certain frivolous reasons deny Mercury and sulphur to be the matter of metal yet Phylosophers who have experience in metals believe the same and that such a matter is found in all Mines and veins of the earth do with one consent witness With whose opinion the judgment of all Miners Melters and tryers of Meals agree Likewise Physicians know that all diseases of such as labour in Mines arise from the admission of crude sulphureous and mercurial spirits into the body and that metals in external affects perform the same that Mercury doth Yea that all metals with no great labour may be reduced into Argentvive and Argentvive into all metals is well known to Phylosophers Calcination of Saturn Melt Lead in a vessel of earth or Iron and purge it from its Scoria's Then encrease the fire that it may be red hot in the vessel continually stirâ—ing it with an Iron spatula until it be reduced to a Calx which if sifted and afterward longer reverberated will be Minium Calcination of Jupiter â„ž English Tin not sophisticate which you may know by its weight and malleation four pound melt it in a pot with a flat bottom and purge it from its Scoria's Then inject a little salt Armoniack and encreasing the fire til the pot be red hot cast in one pound and half of prepared salt so long stirring it with an Iron spatula as until it be reduced to a Calx which afterward by violent fire must be reduced to a body and separated from the impure and blackned salt Again mix it with one pound of prepared salt and calcine it as above Wash the Calx from all its saltness and reverberate it for eight days that it may be turned to an Alcohol From which by affusion of Alkalisate vinegar a salt is extracted digestion for certain days being adhibited and the matter afterward filtred and coagulated Otherwise Jupiter may also be calcined as Saturn without any addition of salt Or else they may be calcined in a wooden Bowl well coated with clay if they be first melted in a crucible and from thence poured into the said wooden vessel and there be stirred about very swiftly Diaphoretick Jupiter â„ž Of English Tin filed or as above calcined either in a vessel of wood or earth not glazed â„¥ ij Of Mercury sublimed â„¥ â—iâ—j Mix them and by Retort distil them in fire of sand applying a Receiver half full of water and when it begins to distil give a moderate fire of suppression until all the Liquor shall be distilled and precipited into the water But what shall be sublimed to the neck of the Retort scrape off and digest it with what is distilled for one night The water impregnated with spirit of vitriol separate and keep it for use but dry the Cax of which the dose is from four grains to six CHAP. XV. Of Calcination of Mars and Venus Calcination of Mars â„ž Of filings of Steel by Ventilation and Ablution diligently cleansed from filth two pound of prepared salt three pound mix them and in a pot for one day natural reverberate them Then take out the mass and grind it afterward dissolve it in hot water and wash it so often as until it be freed from all saltness and terrestreity Which being done by grinding and sifting reduce it to a subtile powder Then again reverberate it for eight or ten days until the superficies be converted to a most red Crocus and impalpable which removed reverberate the remaining part so oft and so long as till it be all reduced to a Crocus Note That the vessel containing the Limature must have a cover that no coals or ashes may fall into the Crocus yet the cover must be so placed as between it and the vessel the flame may have free access Another way Crocus Martis is also prepared by putting smal plates of Steel red hot and sparkling into rolls of sulphur by the force of which they melt and fall down in smal grains into a subjacent vessel half full of cold water or vinegar Dry the grains and grind them to a most subtile powder and if you will you may reverberate them to a Crocus in the space of six or eight hours It hath virtue of expelling opening and attenuating which filings of Steel also acquire being reduced to a most pure Alcohol by the benefit of simple water Otherwise Dissolve â„¥ j. of filings of Iron in â„¥ viij of Aqua fâ—rtis and distil off the Aqua fortis by Alembick in sand So you will have â„¥ j ss of most red Crocus Otherwise Reverberate filings of Mars with a like quantity of beaten sulphur for four or five hours It hath an aperitive virtue but it will have a greater if it be calcined for half an hour or thereabout with double its own weight of sulphur beaten smal Another Calcination of Mars Digest filings of Iron or Steel in vinegar thrice distilled until it be coloured Pour off what is tinged and pour on other fresh vinegar so often as until it shall have extracted all the Tincture Filter the evacuations and distil them and in the bottom will remain a red powder which must be reverberated for one day natural into an impalpable Crocus It hath virtue of constringing Otherwise Crocus Martis is also made with oil of sulphur thus Pour oil of sulphur and spirit of wine of each an equal part into an Iron spoon and by gentle heat evaporate it till the humidity be consumed afterward if it settle for certain days you will find a most subtle powder which keep in a a Phial firmly closed that no air may enter because it will resolve if exposed to the air If some grains of this be given in broth or other convenient Liquor it will be a true Restorative of the Liver helping in all diseases thence arising as the Dropsie and such like Calcination of Venus Venus is dissolved in Aqua fortis and by affusion of warm water with a smal piece of Iron or Silver it is precipited to the bottom of the vessel Or else plates of Copper are reverberated in a Potters fornace into burnt brass which with easie contrition is reduced to a Calx Or smal plates are put into a crucible with an equal part of sulphur beaten smal making S. S. S. that is lay upon lay and so reverberated into Aes ustum CHAP. XVI Of Calcination of Luna and Sol. Calcination of Luna DIssolve Luna in Aqua fortis and by affusion of salt water preâ—â—pit it into a bright Calx to the bottom of the vessel which by frequent pouring on of common water must be edulcorated and then dryed â„ž Of this Calx â„¥ j. of prepared salt â„¥ ij of Salt-armoniack Ê’ij Mix these well in a glass mortar and reverberate the mixture for eight days Afterward extract a tincture with spirit of wine
the most commendable Antidote it is received Garlick Onions Sinape and Nasturcium how sharp are these yet are we not affraid daily to use them in our Banquets The juices of Lemmons and Citrons dissove the most firm bodies of Pearls and Corrals yet in the Cardiack passion and in extream imbecility and decay of strength a more ready and excellent remedy is not vulgarly given Therefore the Acrimony and Costick force of Chymical Remedies is not to be forced especially since many are outwardly corroding which inwardly cannot exercise their force not only by reason of greater repugnancy of the intestines and the vegetate strength of the native heat but also by reason of the noxious humors residing in the Stomach As we devour not whole handfuls of Salt nor use we certain pounds of it in broths but it may be we dissolve of it one pugil and a little Vinegar and Spice we are wont to use for seasoning our meats so when necessity compels spagyrick Physicians to the using of sharp Medicaments they exhibit some drops or one grain or two not alone but mixed with appropriate Liquors Yea the most sharp may be so well odulcorated as they may deposite all their acrimony Chymical Medicines are not dangerous by reason of their sharpness contracted by fire which in Aqua fortis and Aqua Regis is clearly evinced if with them Salt of Tartar be commixed Now as touching the Contagion of fire which is by them objected it is a thing so vain and frivolous as needs no refutation Galen himself in the 18. Chap. de Theriaca ad Pisonem expresly writeth that the fire doth meliorate many things and sometimes discovers the hidden nature of things and some things also it renders apt for use according to our intention Whence also the same Element by Cicero is not undeservedly honoured with the Title of Master of Arts likewise Galen subjects sharp and biting Minerals to the Examen of fire that they may be rendred more gentle He esteems * Red Vitriol Chalcitis burnt better than not burnt Balanus Myrepsica according to Mesue provokes vomiting and also causeth dejections by the inferiour parts but being burnt and the nauseous humidity thereof removed the only force of expelling humours by Seidge remains So sublimate Mercury which is most sharp abiding the violence of fire with Antimony is reduced to a most gentle and most wholsome Alexipharmacon Likewise Iron when calcined into Crocus Martis with fire of reverberation sustaineth the extreamest heat of flames yet they on it impress no acrimony to hinder the use thereof from being most profitable as it is most frequent in Haemorrhagia's and other Fluxes On the contrary how great sharpness do the Water and Oil of Cinnamon acquire in a Balneum of vapour only And in the same how much is Wine made more acid Whence is this Can you understand the Reason You may if you can comprehend why the Sun hardens clay and softens wax and the same makes linnen white Whence is the acrimony of Chymical Medicaments but blackens the face You are therefore deceived if you think Spirit of Vitriol contracts acrimony from external heat and so if you judge that Oil of Salt from the fire of Reverberation is infected with the same for if Salts were not insited and mixed in these you by the greatest violence of fire could never be able to inure such a sharpness And contrarywise should you use the most moderate heat that could be in some things yet you shall undoubtedly render them more sharp by reason of the force of present Salts Moreover for the Empyreuma of Chymical Medicines Chymical Remedies smell not of the fire it is not of such moment as under that name they should seem violent and dangerous to practical Physicians for if such a thing be inherent in those Medicaments it took its beginning either from a moderate or strong heat If from that and therefore Chymical Remedies are censured for obnoxious then can neither our Meats or Drinks or vulgar Medicaments be safe and wholsome since in preparing them oftentimes a greater degree of fire is required than for Spagyrick Remedies which is manifest in the making of Beer or Ale where the Mault is first with strong fire dryed afterward boiled with greater And also in some Rhenish Wines which by reason of their wholsomness are used by the Northern people in almost all diseases instead of a Remedy and yet to a true maturity they cannot be brought but by the benefit of Elementary fite also in broiled fish and smoak dryed roasted and boiled flesh with many other such like But if from this The Empyreuma how it may be corrected viz. from violent fire yet thence cannot any thing of peril happen to the sick since either with ablution or digestion it may be corrected as is seen in ashes which water being poured on them deposite the notes of their calidity received from the fire in a Lixivium Yea ablution often repeated renders some purging Metallicks and Minerals Chymically prepared inefficacious for exhausting depraved humours How by decoction all things are made sweet is known yet there seemed to be need of inducing an Ensample to prove the same If by an Empyrenma you shall happen thus to understand that when either the potential heat which is latent in the mixture as it were under coals is produced into act by violent fire and so freed from all impediment exerciseth more potent force or when the heat which therein was dispersed is united by the benefit of fire for this cause neither an Empyreuma nor too much heat is to be feared since it is the office of a Physician rightly to use hot things of this kind as also others less hot which if imprudently adhibited may unavoidably infer detriment to the sick But Mâ—sochymists cease not to urge us grievously whilst they pretend our Medicaments are unprofitable because they are decayed Preparation renders not Chymical Medicaments unprofitable and take their beginning from perished and corrupted mixt things and are destitute of primogeneal humidity as they say Now if the bodies of mixt things be not to be dissolved or to use their odious terms not to be destroyed Why do they trouble the Harmony of that mixtion Why do they prepare infusions decoctions and Syrups with violent fire Why use they assations Why parchings Why distillations Why Diagridium not Scammony whole Why Trochus of Alhandal not Coloquintida it self Why in extream imbecillity of strength when the sick are ready to expire presume they to nourish them with a destroyed Capon viz. with the distilled water thereof where certainly all the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperament and mixture of the whole perisheth Is it because in this part they would imitate Nature Who conveys not food undigested from the Stomach nor crude or while it is whole for nourishing the parts but destroyed that is separated from the unprofitable and more gross parts and in the
extraction of the more benign and more pure parts may be made so also by like temperate heat of any other thing digestion separates the subtile from the gross what are thick it breaks and attenuates cocts the crude mitâ—igates and edulcorates the unsavoury and so elaborates all things that from things digested a more plentiful Harvest of essence is always to be expected The administration thereof is Learnedly described by Libavius in this manner The matter to be digested is included in a vessel like unto the Stomach every where firmly closed unless when with digestion evaporation is conjoyned as for correction of an Empyreuma or in coagulation and such like for then a small hole in the cover or mouth of the vessel is left and a just time observed that none of the substance perish Whether it be meer juice or Liquor the matter is plain but in Minutal of Herbs and such like either the proper juice is to be left or some analogous humour from without is to be added which notwithstanding is sometimes also in liquors of divers kinds as when Oils are digested with Spirit of Wine c. where is a proneness to putrefaction and in adding the Menstruum care enough can hardly be taken for putrefaction must not be made when we would digest a thing although digestion may be the way to it then Salt is to be added and the vessel so fitted must be placed in a digestory furnace of competent heat and there permitted to stand unto the desired end which is diverse by reason of the multiplicite use of digestion As for example Green Herbs moistned with their own juice from which by distillation their Essence is to be extracted are macerated three days but the dry moistned with Spirit of wine seven days Seeds and Aromaticks half a Moneth Roots for a Moneth if they be dry Minerals for a philosophick moneth A Philosophick Moneth which is forty days or longer according to firmness and the hability of the Menstruum Some are twice macerated sprinkled with Greek-wine as sometimes Aromaticks which being moistned are digested to a dryness afterward pulverisate are the second time macerated by imbibition So solidity and rarity also have their difference of time Distilled Waters set in digestion to the Sun are rectifyed in half a Moneth the vessel being firmly closed and two parts of the vessel ful and the third empty and sometimes a third part of the glass is set in sand which in cold things Artificers command to be done but with great caution Yet hot waters and Oils are rectifyed in cold sand also a third part of the vessel buryed in it c. in a * Vapid or musty moist Cellar for a moneth likewise the other humour to be added must be such as may help digestion without corruption of the substance And here if the humour be alienate it is separated by the aforesaid hole but if otherwise and it be familiar or else alterable into the nature of the digested it â—s left In Dense thiâ—gs it is more sharp and sometimes corrosive as Vinegar Spirit of wine strong wine c. In others gentle as distilled Rain-water Rose-water c. sometimes Oâ—l of the same kind In the interim what are of another Nature and by digestion recede are separated But digestion is not only accompanyed with distillations or extractions but also with rectification coagulation fixation edulcoration of Calxes prepared by Aqua fortis and is called Maceration because it also hath power of penetrating Maceration of opening the compactness of things and of separating impurities Putrefaction Putrefaction is when a mixt body through natural putridness by humour overcoming dryness and external heat operating more strongly than internaly is resolved to an Essence apt to be extracted and segregated from its hetrogeneal parts The way of performing it is thus What is to be putrefied must be duly prepared and so put into a Cucurbit of glass if it either be dry or abound not with humidity sufficient for putrefaction a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Vehicle or Menstruum so generally from the moneth of putrefaction every Liquor is called which is used for extraction of things if it either be of its own kind or to it analogous or a Water convenient must be poured on which by its own excess may take away the dryness of the mixt body open the mixture draw the out-going Essence to it self and conserve it intire and uncorrupt untill it be all extracted and least the heat with its own humidity should expire the vessel must be sealed with Hermes Seal afterward in Horse-dung or like heat it must be conserved and that heat continued to the end of the time prefixed The property of Putrefaction The property of putrefaction is to change both the colours odours and tasts of things and their old nature being destroyed to generate a new Circulation Circulation is of a Liquor depurated from Elements in a Pelican by various Circumvolutations or Rotations by which the impurities setling downward are removed and so it is converted or exalted to a more excellent State It is thus performed The Liquor to be exalted is included in a Pelican or Circulatory vessel four or five parts thereof remaining empty and so it is placed in Balneum or Dung as deep as the Liquor riseth within the Glass or a little lower so as the superiour empty parts of the vessel may stand in the cold Air that from the bottom and the sides an attenuation may be made by heat but from the upper parts coagulation by cold and so the said vessel must be kept in moderate and continued heat â—ntill the Artist come to his desired end and the fâ—ces totally reside in the bottom In this place it seems not improper to annex Fermentation Fermentation although sometimes by it is not made so conspicuous a segregation of the salubrious from the more gross parts as rather a disposition for extracting the most noble Essence Yet it is the Exaltation of a thing in substance by which digestion mediating the Agent heat prevails and turns the Patient into its own Nature Moreover what are fermented are either Liquid or Solid What are Liquid are such simply as Water and Wine or thick and soft as honey and Sapa Liquids which are simply such if they be also hot * Wine boiled to a consistency per se are fermented as Wine Perry Sider But what are cold as the exprest juices of cold things have need of the addition of some other external as feces of Wine dregs of Beers or Ale Salt or any like acidness for accelerating ebullition and fermentation The thick and soft may be in the following manner fermented For example To ten pound of honey adde fifty pound of water Let them stand in moderate heat for one day natural Hydromel then with gentle fire boil the whole and scum it let a third part exhale or while
the Liquor is hot put in a new-laid-egg which if it shall float above the Liquor is a sign of perfect decoction Then the Liquor removed from the fire must be strained hot through a double Cloath and in a sutable Vessel placed in the Sun two drams of Salt of Tartar or common Salt being added or Ê’j of any acidity put in And so it must boil or ferment for forty days or thereabout untill the Liquor be clear and have an odour like Wine Then must the vessel be closed and the Hydromel reserved in a Cellar for use What are solid and hard as Seeds Wheat Fennel Anise Juniper-berrys Aromaticks c. must be bruised and water be poured on them and their proper Salt or what is to them analogous or some acidity or feces of Beer or Wine so as to a hogs-head of the matter to be fermented a pint of feces be added But what are most hard as Stones must first be calcined and afterward fermented as in the following Treatise touching Corals and Lead shall be spoken Extraction specially so called Extraction specially so called is when from the mixt body the more subtile and more noble parts drawn but by any Menstruum are extracted from the Elementary grosness remaining in the bottom and by distillation or evaporation are coagulated to the consistency of Syrup or Sapa It is thus made When a matter having Tincture is infused in a convenient Menstruum and the vessel close shut placed in digestion Afterward the coloured Menstruum by inclination separated and other fresh Menstruum poured on and the vessel closed again set to digest and the same labour so oft repeated as till the Menstruum be no more tinged Then are all the evacuations filtred circulated and coagulated with the Menstruum to an oleaginous consistency or else sometimes to a dryness according to the nature of the matter or as the intended use shall require CHAP. V. Of Coagulation HEtherto we have spoke of Solution and its Species now follows Coagulation Coagulation Coagulation is another of the principal Operations of the Spagyrick Science wherein soft and Liquid things are forced by privation of humidity from a thin and fluid consistency into a solid This although it almost inseparably adhere to the Species of Solution as Precipitation Amalgamation Sublimation Distillation c. Yet is it peculiarly First by exhalation wherein the humour expires from the coagulable matter Secondly by decoction wherein Liquid things are cocted to a certain solid consistency Thirdly by Congelation as in Cellars when Chrystals by cold are produced Fourthly by Fixation wherein things volatile and flying the fire are taught by use to remain fixed therein which is done either by addition of a fixed Medicine or by mixtures or sublimations Cements and such like according to the nature of the matter CHAP. VI. Of Lutation NOw for order sake it is expedient we should speak of Furnaces Vessels and various Chymical Uutensils as also their divers Regimens of fire But these are rather learned by ocular inspection than by precepts and rules Therefore for brevity sake we shall omit them and only speak a few things touching the Lutaments and Conglutination of Sapient Artificers For building Furnaces Take fat Earth of what colour soever it be and mix and work it together with sand Horse-dung and salt-Salt-water For Coating Retorts Although I am not wont to Coat either Glass or Earthen Retorts whether I distill by sand or by a naked fire or by a close Reverberatory or by fire of suppression Take Potters-clay Horse-dung washt and dry'd flour of Tiles and Scales of Iron mix and work these strongly together with common water Luting of Sapience for closing in the most Subtile Spirits Make Luting of Calx vive and the white of Eggs reduced to water and speedily apply the same because it easily drys For consolidating crackt and broken Glasses Take Bole-armenack Minium Ceruse of each equal parts reduce them to a most subtile powder and temper it with Linseed Oil or liquid Varnish For Luting Glasses together I unto this day have with good success used Hoggs or Ox-bladders for luting an Alembeck with its Cucurbit as well in distillation of waters as of sharp and penetrating Spirits For Luting the nose of the Alembeck with the Recipient Take of Wax â„¥ j. Rosin Colophony of each â„¥ j. melt them together in an earthen pan unto these adde a little Oil Olive stirring them with a stick that the whole may be incorparated then removing the pan from the fire work the whole well together with your hands For Luting Retorts with their Receivers in distillation of sharp Spirits The Luting for coating Retorts work together with Salt water or mix it with Colophony pulverisate and apply it moist The End of the First Book TYROCINIVM CHYMICVM OR CHYMICAL ESSAYS Book the Second THe former Book treats of Solution and Coagulation in general Proemium now in the following Books we intend to treat of the effects of these Operations Although in Specie how the compactness of all mixt bodies are to be opened ought to be declared the same we should have endeavoured to perform had we undertaken to write an entire System and not a Tyrocinium of Chymistry There are effects or as by some they are called Chymical Species of Solution and Coagulation which are either liquid or soft or hard To the liquid may be referr'd the various kinds of Aqua fortis Spirits Vinegar Oils and Liquid Tinctures extracted from Flowers Herbs Roots Rinds Seeds Woods c. To the soft Balsoms various Extracts soft Tinctures To the Hard Salts Flores Magisterys Calxes dry Tinctures of Crocus CHAP. I. Before we come to speak of the forms of Liquors to be prepared which are for the most part made by distillation certain general Rules seem needful to be inserted of which this is The First VEssels in which distillation is made Rules necessary for the Doctrine of distillation must not be of Lead For they infect Liquors with a malignant quality render them vomitive change their native taste and sometimes themselves are corroded by sharp vapours expiring from the matter to be distilled And if Galen and other wise Physicians condemned the waters which flow through Leaden Pipes by reason of the malignity much infesting the internal parts which they thence contract What may be judged of waters distilled in Leaden Vessels Since it is often manifest especially when distilled Liquors of this kind have stood unmoved for certain days that Ceruse of Lead rased off in distillation from the Leaden Alembeck is found in the bottom of the vessel especially if to prove the same you shall pour in a drop or two of Spirit of Vitriol And what is said of Leaden vessels for like reason must be understood of Tin Brass and Iron unless distillation be made in a Brass Vesica where what are distilled soon flow out The Second Glasses by how much the higher they be so much the better
are they For so one distillation is better than three rectifications Let the Cucurbits or Glass bodys for the most part be two Cubits high The Third In every distillation vessels must not be two full you will more safely operate if Cucurbits be filled but one fourth part Retorts about half but the Brass Vesica may be three parts full and but one remaining empty The Fourth Things flatulent as Wax Rosin and the like as also those which easily boil must be put to distil in a less quantity and in greater vessels and indeed must be mixed with Salt Sand or such like The Fifth Distillation by a Balneum is proper for things not too strongly compacted Yet in Herbs especially those that are hot as in Worm-wood Sage Rosemary c. great heed must be taken that we use not too gentle heat least we draw out not so much of the essence as of the unprofitable phlegm But in Lettice Endive and such like of a more thin substance a moderate heat must be adhibited and sometimes a Baln of dew or vapour only which neither impresseth an Empyreuma nor dissipates the more thin airy parts may be sufficient The Sixth Distillation by Ashes or Sand agrees with things of a more solid consistency as Seeds Woods Roots c. The Seventh By a Brass Vesica things thin are not only distilled but others also which are more firmly compacted yet in their Menstruum first macerated The Eighth Distillation by Retort doth not only extract the more weighty Spirits of Minerals but also things more soft as Woods Seeds Roots Gums Rosins c. Waters and Oils The Ninth When fresh and juicy Herbs are to be distilled they must be bruised and the juice expressed and then by heat of Baln distilled in a high Cucurbit The Tenth Herbs either of their own nature dry or dryed by time must be bruised and moistned with common water or their own proper water May-dew or Wine And of the Menstruum must be so great a quantity as may be sufficient for maceration but if more be poured on the whole quantity must not be abstracted Maceration being made according to discretion distillation must be made by a Baln or if you shall distil per Vesicam add to every one pound of herbs six pound of water and distil according to Art The Eleventh In the same manner per Vesicam whatsoever is Aromatick whether Roots or Rinds Woods Seeds or Leaves or Flowers are distilled and Oil and water come forth together The Twelfth There are some which require a vehement fire yet such must not be too violently urged least in so doing their nature be wholly corrupted The Thirteenth Great care must be taken that the Luting wherewith the distillatory vessels are conglutinated do no where admit of expiration least the liquor be defiled with an extraneous quality especially when a more violent fire is to be adhibited The Fourteenth The distillation of things Acid hath this property that the more ignoble part always comes forth first and the more noble last Wherefore in Rectification of them what first comes forth is to be separated as phlegm The Fifteenth If waters smell of an Empyreuma or shall be very much contaminated with a certain fiery heat dispersed through their least parts that is corrected if the Glasses containing them be set in a cold and moist place The Sixteenth When Liquors distilled per B. M. are to be rectified by Insolation the Glasses wherein they are put must be but half full or three parrs filled at most and the Membranes with which they are wont to be covered must be pricked with a needle that through those Spiracles the unprofitable flegm may exhale The Seventeenth Distillation must so long be continued as untill the Liquor come forth without any savour of the matter imposited CHAP. II. Of Waters from Flowers Herbs Roots Rinds Seeds Woods Water of Roses THis is prepared divers ways Some take of Roses a convenient quantity and these digested three days in Baln they distil with the vapour of hot water Others without preceding digestion draw forth a water from them put into an Alembeck Others also distil them by ashes where there is need of the greatest Caution and circumspection least the distilled Liquor be infected with an Empyreuma And there are others who for lucre of gain more than intending the health of Men take the Roses whole as they are gathered with a great quantity of water and distil them by a Brass Vesica and from thirty pound of Roses they extract a hundred pound of saleable water having an indifferent good odour Others distil the flowers bruised by gentle heat of Baln without any Menstruum or at most only so much as will serve to moisten them and for the more expeditious procuring of a cooling virtue in one distillation they first moisten them either with common water or old Rose-water or else for enduring a fragrant and comforting virtue they use more infusions in distilled water Which way we follow in preparing it only distinguishing between the white and the flesh coloured For from them that the greater cooling virtue may be obtained we beat them in a Marble Mortar having first moistned them with a little Rain water then with a Press express the juice and so distil it The flesh coloured bruised without any moistning are put into a great glass vessel set in a Cellar and after three days the juice is exprest and distilled This is the most fragrant water and will keep the fragrancy of its odour many years Some upon the pressings of these pour clean and pure water and so macerated for eight days they distil it either in Baln or a brass Vesica and this water so dâ—stilled in virtue and efficacy is not inferior to the common vendible Rose-water Burning Water of Roses As from all other things especially such as are Alimentose as flagrant and fragrant water by the benefit of fermentation may be extracted so also from Roses which by common censure are cold Take Roses gathered in a serene time when they are wholly destitute of any dewy moisture beat these most accurately and put them in a glass Cucurbit which afterward being firmly closed place in a Cellar As soon as the Matter seems to smell of any acidity take of the same bruised flowers what quantity you please and thence distil a Liquor per Baln the water thence extracted pour upon another part of the Roses and again distil it after the same manner proceeding until all the quantity of fermented Roses hath passed by Alembeck the feces which are wont to remain in the bottom being every time separated Afterward all the water drawn from the Roses distil by Baln and abstract about a twelfth part at least and it if you please rectifie So will you have a most grateful and most odoriferous water and which will as readily take flame as Spirit of wine Water of Succory Take of the Herbs and Roots of Succory gathered in the middle
of May twelve pound bruise them or cut them very small pour on them of common water twenty pound and having macerated them three days by a Vesica distil at least eight pound Fennel Water â„ž Of Fennel-seeds grosly beaten four pound of common water twenty four pound add of Salt of Tartar or common Salt â„¥ j. macerate these in a hot place Afterward distil them by a Brass Vesica with its Refrigeratory So the water with the Oil will pass out together which from it must be separated Cinnamen Water â„ž Of the best Cinnamon grosly bruised on which pour of Rose-water and of White-wine of each three pound macerate them in heat congruous to the heat of dung then make distillation per Baln separating the first water which is the best and also receiving the second apart and so likewise the third The second may be used instead of a Menstruum for maceration The third is unprofitable phlegm Acid Water of Oak Juniper Guaiacum and Box. â„ž The sawings of Oak or small splinters or shavings of Juniper and Guaiacum or shavings of Box distil them in a Retort unto a dryness afterward separate the Oil from the water through a brown paper Rectifie the water in sand upon Colcothar or Sea-Salt or its own proper ashes then by distillation separate the phlegm from the acid Liquor Lastly reserve a third part of the most pure Liquor or there about It is useful in dissolving Corals and Pearls and in extracting their Tinctures Compounded Water of Cinnamon Macerate and distil Cinnamon as above adding the Roots of Dittany of Crete Angelica of each Ê’ij In this water dissolve as much white Sugar as you can and digest the whole for one day natural afterward segregate the superfluous water by distillation then adde of Aqua vitae rectifyed â„¥ â—j and diligently mix them It is of admirable virtue in the Pest and in a difficult Birth CHAP. III. Of sundry kinds of Aqua fortis STrong Waters which are also called Caustick Chrysulcae Separatory and Stygian Waters are confected by violent fire of Atramentum Sutorium Salt Nitre Salt-armoniack Stibium sublimate Mercury Allom Cinnabar c. Of which that which obtains the greatest caustick and corrosive force of all is called Aqua Stygia but that which dissolves gold Aqua Regia Common Aqua fortis â„ž Vitriol dryed two pound Salt-peter purified one pound grind them together and mix them then put them into a Retort very well coated which place in a Furnace of Reverberation and applying a capacious Receiver distil by fire gradually augmented for twenty four hours When white and cloudy Spirits are dissipated in the Recipient the distillation is ended after which suffer all to cool by degrees The water taken out clarifie with Silver in this manner take a fourth part of the Liquor distilled in which project of pure silver Ê’j and dissolve the same over a fire pour out the Solution on the other three parts and they will wax milky let the water settle and pour off the clear If you would have it be Aqua Regia in â„¥ iiij of this common water dissolve â„¥ j. of Salt Armoniack or common Salt dryed and with it you may dissolve gold A perpetual Aqua fortis and the way of making Cinnabar Dissolve Mercury in Aqua fortis add of Sulphur an equal part distil these by Retort and you will have a water more potent than before and in the neck of the Retort Cinnabar Philosophick Water or Aqua Regia â„ž Of Salt Nitre purified and Salt armoniack of each â„¥ ij grind and mix them well together and in a large Retort with a capacious Receiver annexed the junctures gently luted make distillation in ashes continuing the fire until all the fumes with great violence be come forth and no more drops will fall from the Retort Then take out the Retort while it is hot and put in the same quantity of the abovesaid matter and mix it with the Caput-mortuum distilling it as above CHAP. IV. Of Spirits SPirits participate partly of water and partly of fire and as they are more aqueous or more oleaginous so are they called either water or Oil. Yet such as are extracted from Minerals are for the most part called Oils Among the Spirits of Animals the spirit of humane bloud excels of Vegetables spirit of Wine and of Minerals spirit of Vitriol Spirit of Wine Digest Rich wine in dung or like heat in Circulatory vessels of an equal largeness for eight or ten days afterward the vessels cooled pour it out into high Cucurbits on which set Alembecks with Recipients annexed the junctures being firmly closed with Hogs or Ox-bladders make distillation in Baln according to Art First the spirit Spirit comes forth which keep apart by changing the Receivers then urge the phlegm till the feces remain thick like liquid honey The same feces distil by Retort administring fire gradually and you shall receive a fat Oil. Oil. Then from the Caput-mortuum by reverting the phlegm upon it and by digesting filtring and coagulating you may extract a Salt Salt If you desire the spirit of wine more excellent rectifie it by often repeated distillations Spirit of Tartar â„ž Of pure white Tartar five pound put it in a glass Retort to which when placed in ashes with a large Receiver annexed administer fire gradually first the spâ—rit comes forth afterward the Oil both which must be rectifyed by addition of Salt of Tartar and afterward separated each from other It is a famous aperitive wherefore in retention of the Menstrues the Paralysie Jaundies and such like affects it is wonderfully efficacious It is also used in the Dropsie with other hydragoge waters In the Leprosie Indian disease Pleurisie and Quinsey it is also exhibited The dose from ℈ j. to ℈ ij in convenient Liquors Spirit of Turpentine â„ž Of clear Turpentine what quantity you please put it into a Brass Vesica with its Refrigeratory almost filled with water So a spirit is drawn forth which will swim above the water and by B. M. it may be rectifyed It s use in Medicine is manifold The Cough Phtisick it cures pestilential venoms it resists it clears the stomach of sordid and viscous stoppages it maketh Urine sweet as a Violet it expels the Stone and gravel and heals the Strangury and Ulcers of the bladder it opens and comforts the nervous parts heats the Spermatick vessels and excites Venus dissolves coagulated bloud purifies the womb and in suffocation of the Matrix is exceeding profitable Externally in contusions it is of admirable use and exceeding beneficial Spirit of Sulphur Under a Glass Campane place an earthen vessel with Sulphur which set on fire The inferiour vessel must be so fitted to the Campane that the ascending fumes may not suffocate the flame but carryed freely upward into the head may there be condensed into Liquor and so fall into a vessel apt to receive the same From one pound of Sulphur may you have
â„¥ j. of spirit of so great efficacy as Leonardus Fieravant said he could never sufficiently admire the vertue thereof inwardly exhibited into the body It may be given with appropriate waters or Syrups to 4. 5. or 6. drops And be mixed with Electuaries and Pills as well in hot as cold distempers Externally also it is profitable for dealbation of the Teeth for Ulcers in Lues-venerea of the jaws Warts and Fistula's of the Fundament and all other members It is also called Oil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but improperly Spirit of Vitriol There are three kinds of Vitriol the Green White and Blew participating of the nature of Salts Alloms and Sulphurs some more and some less The first indeed participates more of Salt the second of Allom and the third of Sulphur and they consist of an aqueous earthy and middle nature the aqueous and earthy as Ripley witnesseth in his Pupil of Alchimy cannot be separated from their extremities but by the mediation of Mercury which as Geber affirms retains what is of its own nature rejecting and exposing to the fire what is not so The middle perspicuous substance exalted by sublimation into a Snow-like candor occultly in it self contains a sulphurious seed most Red like a small worm Whence in Turba it is said Philosophers have admired that a redness should be existant in so great whiteness Of this Sulphur Gebar thus speaketh in cap. 28. Summ. By the most high GOD that thing illuminates and rectifies all bodies because it is Allom and Tincture This is that Aqua vitae the dry water which wetteth not the hands the congealed water the animate Salt touching which Raymund Lully after Alphidius saith salt is no other than fire nor fire any other than sulphur nor sulphur other than Argent vive reduced into that precious celestial incorruptible substance which we call our stone Whence one to the Letters VITRIOLUM thus alludes Visitando Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam that is visiting the interiour parts of the earth by rectifying you may find the occult stone the true Medicine Moreover among Artists it is controverted whether among the various kinds of Vitriol either that of Cyprus the Romane or Hungarick be the better and more noble The Cyprian and Romane may well enough be suspected because they are for the most part adulterate and sophisticate being various viz. of divers colours forms and virtues And the Hungarick such as by French and German Merchants is brought unto us is a certain blew perspicuous and sometimes a greenish Vitriol which they sell for genuine and as brought from Pannonia but they lie impudently For when I with great travel went to those parts with intention to go into the Mines of Gold and Silver that I might by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper experience have more perfect notice of Metals and Minerals the Illustrious and noble Lord of Bloenstain general Prefect of the Mines of that Kingdom of Hungary through his aboundant courâ—esie and humanity did certainly affirm to me that there were two kinds of Vitriol there whereof one was white and very aluminose of which they make Chrysule-waters but the other blew and far more excellent yet the Minera of this although much better than the other was not dug because no Merchants judged it worth their time to buy such Vitriol and transport it to other Lands The same is likewise affirmed of Antimony Ungarick Antimony genuine is seldom brought into other Regions which is found in aboundance in the Gold Mines That Vitriol of right and deservedly ought to be censured most excellent which by the benefit of water is made of Venus and thence extracted as is mentioned hear-after To this the blew aforesaid is somewhat inferiour for this contains in it self more of Sol transmutes more of Mars into Venus and longer sustains the Examen of fire before it gives forth its last spirits from what place soever it is brought Therefore of this Vitriol â„ž twelve pound calcine it in an earthen vessel with moderate fire untill all its humidity recede The vessel cooled reduce the Mass which will be about seven pound to powder very fine and with one pound or thereabouts of the same Test where it was calcined pulverisate put it into a Retort firmly coated which must be so large as at least a third part thereof may be empty Then place it in a Reverberatory furnace apply a large Recipient with a short neck likewise coated and diligently close the juncture of the Retort with the Receiver with Salt Luting Then above the Retort place a broad cover of earth of one foot high and quadrangularly perforate in the top or upper part being made exactly to close the mouth of the furnace of what form soever it be whether square or round exactly fitted in altitude convenient and to close or shut in the mouth of the furnace equally on every side that the vacant place between the Retort and the cover may be filled with coals Which being done make a quadrangular draught with four pieces of Tile above the square hole of the cover that the flame by help of such a vehicle may when time serves more freely ascend The Orifice of the draught as also the furnace door and ash hole must be so closed as for the first four hours the coals in the furnace may but just burn without being extinguished by which the Retort being leisurely and successively heated then for the following four hours the heat may be encreased by gradually and by little and little every hour opening the holes above and below until the flame begin to break out in the superiour part and the Retort wax hot all over the ash hole and draught being altogether open and no way stopped the fire must be intended eighteen or twenty hours untill all the spirits be come forth After two days moisten the Salt Luting wherewith the Retort and Recipient were joyned with a wet cloath keept on for an hour because it will be so very hard as without moistning it cannot be removed without endangering the Glasses then may you safely take off the Receiver Which being done by distillation in Baln or a gentle heat in ashes separate the phlegm from the spirit There are some who after separation of the phlegm do rectifie the spirit in sand upon Corals beaten small This spirit in burning Fevers mixt with appropriate waters conveniently cools it quenches thirst resists the putrefaction of humours it operates by Urine and Sweat consumes phlegm breaks tough and viscous homours restores languished appetite and excellently tingeth juices of Roses Violets and other flowers Spirit of Nitre Nitre or Salt-peter must be mixed with three parts of common Bolus and distilled by Retort the space of ten or twelve hours Of one pound of Salt-peter you may have a pound of Spirit if you rightly operate This Spirit is the true Balsamick fire of nature and in the Cholick Pleurisie and Quinsey
is very beneficial Burning Spirit of Saturn Calx of Saturn or Minium is infused in distilled Vinegar or else the phlegm thereof afterward it is digested for one day natural being often stirred that it Chrystallize not in the bottom of the vessel the Menstruum is poured off and other Menstruum poured on until all the Saltness be abstracted The evacuations are filtred and two parts or thereabout vapoured away the third remaining part set in a cold place to Chrystallize the Chrystals are separated and dissolved in fresh Vinegar filtred and often as above coagulated untill they be sufficiently impregnated with the Salt of Vinegar Armoniack as with proper ferment They are digested for a Moneth with such heat in Baln as they may continually be resolved like Oil into Liquor Afterward they are distilled by Retort in sand observing degrees of fire into a large capacious Receiver annexed which if not very exactly luted on with the Retort so great a fragrancy filling the whole Laboratory will be lost as I doubt not but if the odours of all odorate Vegetables were gathered together and mixed it would far exceed them After distillation when all is cooled you will find a Caput-mortuum very black and of no value From the Liquor come forth you shall separate a yellow Oil supernatant and an Oil Red as bloud setling to the bottom The phlegm by reiterated distillations being separated from the burning water you shall keep the most fragrant spirit of Saturn as a most precious Balsom for various diseases profitably to be exhibited as well internally as externally Moreover a fragrant Spirit of this kind may by Chymical Art be extracted not from Saturn only but also from all other Metals by mediation of that viscous Mineral water which by the benefit of Vulcan only without the addition of any extraneous thing in a most short space of time is prepared Of which Rhodianus in the Treatise of three words saith That fumous aqueous and adustive Spirit is changed into a most noble body and flies not any more from the fire but flows like Oil c. For it receives all the qualities of that Metal with which by the industry of a prudent Artificer it is mixed as also the odour colour and taste with conservation of its vegetate faculty And as Rhasis saith As it is changed it changeth Whence it is apparent how basely ignorant vulgar Misochymists are who atribute odours tasts and other medicinal virtues to vegetables only and esteem Metallicks as destructive to the humane body and worthy to be shunned more than a Dog or Snake CHAP. V. Of Vinegar Distilled Vinegar VInegar without digestion is distilled in the same manner as Spirit of Wine only that the phlegm as in all other sharp things comes forth first and the spirit last Oil and Salt by like reason as is said in Wine are thence extracted Vinegar Alkalisate Upon Vinegar distilled to the consistency of Liquid honey pour so much common water as may stand above it six seven or eight inches digest it in Balneum for two days then set it in a cold place to Chrystalize Remove from them the water by inclination and pour on other until all the oleaginy recede Then must the Chrystals be often dissolved in boiling water and coagulated in a cold place that they may be rendred altogether transparent and on them poured vinegar four times distilled and purged from all its phlegm so as to one pound of Chrystals be added four pound of Vinegar Which being done the whole must be distilled by Retort in sand administring toward the end a fire sufficiently strong The distillation finished calcine the feces and extract a fixed Salt then rectifie the vinegar with its essential animate Salt distilling it with a strong fire from the fixed Salt and repouring what is distilled off upon the remaining Salt until all the Salt shall have passed by Alembeck Then twice distil this vinegar impregnated with this its own Salt in a boiling Baln that being done keep the vinegar thus rendred most potent for calcining the most hard bodies of Stones and Chrystals CHAP. VI. Of Oils OIl exprest from Olives is most properly so called because it participates of every exceeding quality but others are only similitudinarily so named All Oils are between an airy and fiery nature and by how much the more sharp they are so much the more fiery and the loss sharp are said to be the more Aethereal and airy Oil of the Yolks of Eggs. Fry the Yolks broke in a Frying-pan with temperate heat until they wax Red and send forth Oil keeping them continually moving with a stick that they burn not Then express the Oil hot and with a great quantity of distilled water digest it for a Moneth in Baln Some take the Yolks so fryed and inclosing them in cloath moistned Oil of sweet Almonds press out the Oil with with a Press Mathiolus writing to Dioscorides commends this Oil as useful for cleansing and removing roughness of the Skin and clefts of the lips hands and feet and against dolours of Ulcers of the joints and all nervous places It is likewise profitable in scaldings or burnings by fire and in membranes of the Brain malignant Ulcers it cicatriseth and generates hairs Oil of Sage Take a great quantity of Sage and set it in the shade two or three weeks afterward distil it by a Refrigeratory and receive the water which you may rectifie and the Oil. Which is profitable in all diseases of the Nerves in the Paralysie Apoplexy Convulsion and such like Oil of Wax Melt wax with a gentle fire and let it stand so long melted as till from it no more bubles rise Then removing it from the fire mix it with double its own weight of Salt decrepitate and distil it by Retort with gentle heat From one pound of wax you may extract â„¥ xij of Oil. It resolves attenuates penetrates mollifies and discusses wherefore it is profitable in hard imposthums and cold tumors It heals chops in the paps of womens breasts and mitigates the dolours of them Also it consolidates fresh wounds if therewith they be twice a day anointed It is beneficial in burns if mixed with oil of eggs Oil of Turpentine â„ž The thick substance remaining after distillation of spirit of Turpentine and distil it per se by Retort in ashes So when the oil is extracted Colophony will reside in the bottom of the Retort If you shall digest it afterward in Baln as is said of the Oil of yolks of eggs all its empyreuma will be removed It heats softens discusseth opens purges and externally may be used instead of true Balsom in all wounds malignant fetid and incurable Ulcers as Fistula's the Wolf and such like running soars in the Parotides fractures and contractures c. But it doth not always per se if used alone prove so beneficial as when it is conveniently mixed with other appropriates for curing the affects Oil of Cloves â„ž Of Cloves grosly beaten
four pound of fountain water forty pound macerate them in a hot place as long as shall be convenient adde of Tartar â„¥ ij afterward distil it by a brass Vesica with its Refrigeratory and you will have â„¥ viij of oil In the same manner Mace Pepper and the Seeds of Anise and Coriander c. may be distilled It helps in cold diseases of the Stomach Liver Heart and the Diarrhaea from a cold cause it dissipates melancholly spirits and clarifies the gross Externally it heals green wounds and performs the office of true Balsom Oil of Sugar â„ž Of white Sugar grosly beaten â„¥ iiij Aqua vitae â„¥ viij Set fire of the Aqua vitae in a silver or earthen dish glazed into which cast the Sugar continually stirring it with a Spatula until the flame cease then add of Rose-water â„¥ â—j mix them It corroborates and by experience certainly helps those that labour with a cough caused by coldness of the Lungs Oil of Tartar This oil beside the way above delivered in preparing the spirit thereof is also made per deliquium by putting Tartar calcined to a whiteness in a Cellar This oil is an admirable Remedy in the Measels all Ulcers especially venereal in the Tinea Scab and Warts It makes the face smooth and the skin soft or other moist place until it be resolved into oil which must afterward be filtred Also it may be prepared If Tartar after calcination be dissolved in common water filtred and coagulated and the coagulate placed in a cold moist place until it be resolved Oil of Amber Digest a pound of Amber beaten in one pound of white wine Then adde a handful of prepared Salt distil it by Retort observing degrees of fire By distillation twice rectifie it with Salt only This oil was once called Sacred by reason of the admirable virtues it hath being as well exhibited per se as mixt with others in the Epilepsie Appoplexy Melancholly Cramp Vertigo Pest Stone cold defluxions of the Head Palpitations of the Heart deliquiums of the mind difficulty of breathings difficulty of making water difficult Birth Strangulations of the womb retention of the Menses white flux of the Matrix Worms and Fevers A compounded Oil for the Hemicrania â„ž Of Rue one handful boil it in one pound of oil Olive in a new earthen pot for half an hour Then pour it it into a Retort and to it adde of Venice Turpentine â„¥ xij of Colophony â„¥ iiij distil it in sand the clear water which comes forth first being of little value separate Afterward gradually encreasing the fire the oil will come forth which receive apart In the time of the Fit heat a little of it over a fire and with Cotton moistned in it anoint the fore-head and Temples and the dolourous part also ordering the Patient to go to bed A compounded Oil for the Womb. â„ž Of the powder of Rue a little dryed one â—ound Castor â„¥ ij Olibanum Myrrh of each â„¥ iiij â—il of Linum ½ pound digest them four days in â—orse dung or like heat afterward distil them by â—etort in a close Reverberatory With this Liquor â—oint the Womb morning and evening Oil of Tiles Small pieces of Tiles or Flints like Beans make Red hot in a Crucible which so fiery hot cast into old oil Olive close the vessel and leave it for a night Afterward distil the small Stones with the oil by Retort Rectifie the oil by distilling it the second and third time with prepared Salt Oil of Sulphur â„ž Of Sulphur beaten one pound Calx-vive ½ pound Mercurial Salt â„¥ iiij mix them and distil by Retort For wounds and Ulcers it is very profitable Oil of Salt Salt consists of divers parts earthy The nature of Salt aqueous and fiery It s consistency and solidity is from earth its Liquability from water and its biting property from fire It is sharp * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter-sweet cutting subtile penetrative pure fragrant incombustible and preserves other bodys from corruption perspicuous as air by reiterated distillations dissoluble in humid and Liquable in fire like Metals And it is as the Soul in the body according to Pliny who after the Stoicks saith Salt is given to Swines flesh being as it were dead in its own nature instead of a Soul For this in manner of â—erment where it hath power of penetration converts the body with which it is mixed into its own nature by consuming the humour obnoxious to putrefaction Raymund Lully calls the salsuginous Liquor dispersed through the whole body Urinal humour Paracelsus Mummy There are divers ways invented by Artists of extracting the oil of spirit of Salt Some distil Salt decrepitate per se without addition of any external thing But since salt is of easie fusion and when co-united in one it retains the most contumacious spirits after distillation for twenty four hours all being cooled they break the Retort grind the Mass of salt and put it in a new Retort with the distilled Liquor and this they repeat so often as till the whole salt be resolved into oil which in the eighth or ninth distillation is wont to be This Operation is too tedious Others dissolve calcined salt in a Cellar or with Rain-water and impaste it with Potters Clay sifted and thence make smal balls or pellets which when dryed they put into a Retort and so extract the spirit But I am wont thus to prepare it I take of Sea salt calcined two pound and I mix it with six pound of flour of Tiles Red Earth or common Bolus all which I put into a firm and large Retort so as at least a third part may remaâ—n empty and applying a capacious Recipient into which I first pour one pound of distilled water then do I keep it distilling for thirty hours observing the same degrees of fire mentioned in distillation of spirit of Vitriol After separation of the water and phlegm I receive â„¥ xx at least of most sharp o l which must be rectifyed It is endued with most poâ—ent virtues whether it be used internally or externally It renovates the whole Man and preserves â—rom all diseases if it be used in râ—ch Wine or Aqua vitae Mixt with salt of Wormwood and taken either in Wine or water of Wormwood it expels the Dropsie It cures the Epilepsie Jaundies Fevers Stone and Maw-worms By anointing it heals Members disjoynted contracted paralytick and apostemated Also it mitigates dolours of the Gout if mixed with oil of Turpentine or of Wax or Camomil Also it calcines all Metals Stones yea Glass it self the most perfect work of Art Another way Dissolve common salt in humid per se filter it so often as till no feces be left then set it in horse dung for two Moneths afterward with most strong fire distil it and separate the phlegm from the unctuous salsug nous Liquor by B. M. Whatsoever is most obnoxious to corruption if imbibed with this Liquor it remains incorrupt
it be tinged with a most Red colour separate the Menstruum by Baln This tincture is the true Balsom of the Lungs Tincture of Coral Dissolve â„¥ j. of Corals in one pound of juice of Lemons digest it for eight days then filter the Solution in this tincture dissolve of white Sugar â„¥ viij Then digest it by evaporating to the consistency of a Syrup Dose one spoonful in every Hepatick flux Dysentery and flux of bloud Another way â„ž Of Coral beaten smal what quantity you will infuse it in acid water either of Oak or of Juniper Guaiacum or Box rectified as we have taught in the Chapter of distilled waters that the Menstruum may stand above the Coral three or four fingers Then place it to digest in horse-dung or like heat for eight days What shall be dissolved pour off and pour on other acid water digest and pour it off so often as until the Corals be wholly dissolved the dissolutions filter and distil to a dryness To the matter remaining in the bottom pour the best spirit of wine That will in eight days be tinged like bloud being set in digestion then separate the tinged Liquor from the feces repour on other spirit digest and pour it off until you shall have extracted all the tincture Then filter the tinged spirit and coagulate it to the consistency of a Syrup If you will you may circulate it with Cordial water or add Sugar dissolved in rose-Rose-water and reduce it into a syrup Another way Corals are calcined with a like quantity of sulphur and the tincture extracted with distilled Vinegar by digestion for five or six days Otherwise Corals beaten are calcined with a like quantity of Salt-peter for one hour in a fire so moderate as the Nitre may not melt Afterward they are put hot into a vessel and spirit of wine is poured upon them and with it they are digested for twenty four hours The tinged spirit is poured off and other spirit repoured on until it shall have extracted all the tincture CHAP. XI Of Calcination of Common Salt Salt-peter Vitriol the Stone of the Spunge Chrystal and Marchasite of Silver Calcination of common Salt PUt common Salt in a crucible or other earthen vessel filling it full almost to the top then place the vessel covered between living coals until it be very hot all over and the Salt cease crackling Afterward dissolve it in common water filter the Solution and coagulate it in a new glass dish Calcination of Salt-peter or Mineral Crystal or of Lapis Prunella Dissolve Salt-peter in common water and filter it through brown paper that it may be purged from all its impurities Then in a glass vessel boil it and scum it often before it be coagulated When coagulate and dry grind it and in a clean earthen vessel placed in burning coals liquefie the Salt To every pound of melted Salt inject â„¥ j. of flowers of Sulphur yet not altogether at one time but at sundry times until all the fatness be consumed in flame But the flame must studiously be avoided This Solution Filtration Decoction Despumation Coagulation Eliquation and Deflagration of the Salt being thrice repeated the Salt is sufficiently prepared for medicinal use Of this Salt Ê’ ss dissolved in water of Roses or Endive is a principal Arcanum in the Prunella or soar throat being gargled for it takes away all uncleanness of the mouth and throat And if a little of that water be swallowed it asswageth all internal heat and is an admirable cooler of the heart It abateth the Cough if taken with spirit of Wine with water of Hysop it removes obstructions both of the Lungs and Liver Shortness of breath it cures Hoarsness it helps and restores lost speech if Ê’ ss thereof be taken in a morning fasting with the yolk of an Egge moderately boiled Moreover it is useful in all diseases both internal and external as John Tholdeus in his Halography and Bernard Penotus in his book of the true preparation of Chimical Medicaments amply teach Calcination of Vitriol Dry Vitriol to a whiteness in an earthen vessel not glazed with moderate fire afterward encrease the fire for a quarter of an hour that the Vitriol may wax red then is it called Colcothar Calcination of the Spunge Stone Heat the Stone of the Spunge red hot often and as often extinguish it in distilled Vinegar until it be resolved into a Calx It s use in Calcination is for extracting tincture Calcination of Chrystal Chrystal reverberated for six hours in a crucible reduce to a subtile powder and mix it with an equal quantity of Salt-peter and again reverberate it with a vehement fire for eighteen hours Pour it out while in flux into clear water and what remains undissolved dry and reduce to an Alcohol Then with the same water boil it until it be thickned like a Poultis after which lay the Spissiude upon pieces of glass to dry in heat and again reduce it to an Alcohol and if you will set it in a cold humid place to be resolved If any thing shall remain still undissolved reiterate the Calcination with Nitre and the other labours as above that it may be Soluble Dose three or four drops with a like quantity of oil of Juniper Against the Stone of the Reins and bladder Another way Make clear and pondrous Chrystal red hot often and as oft exstinguish it in distilled Vinegar until with the least touch it may be reduced to powder Then mix it with a like quantity of Salt-peter and reverberate it for eighteen hours Then by many ablutions extract a fixed Salt-peter dry it and reduce into an Alcohol It is profitable in the Stone Falling sickness Dysentery and Sterile Breasts If any one would for the aforesaid affects more subtiliate this impalpable powder let him digest it twenty four hours in spirit of Wine and by Retort distil it What shall remain fixed must be reverberated as above and so often digested and distilled as until the greater part shall ascend with the spirit of Wine Then the spirit of wine being separated by distillation what remains in the bottom of the vessel must be set in a moist place that it may be dissolved into a water or oil Calcination of Marchasite of Silver Weismouth or Marchasite must be dissolved in water made of Salts unto a sulphureous and Stiptick clearness The solution being clear pour upon it the * Nucleus essence of all liquid things so in a moment it will be precipited into an Alcohol most white like snow which must be freed from all acrimony and dryed It s use is for removing vices of the skin CHAP. XII Of the various Calcination of Antimony Calcination of Antimony â„ž Of choice Stibium four pound of salt prepared five pound These pulverised mix And in a vessel of earth with a broad bottom placed over a fornace of Reverberation still them together for the space of five or six hours until the fume cease and the Stibium
be made white and somewhat yellow diligently beware of Liquefaction and the noxious fume Afterward grind it to powder from which by affusion of hot water and also of cold often the salt must be extracted which dryed and pulverised sublime per se in a proper vessel for ten or twelve hours Hav ng gathered the flores grind the Catu-mortuum and reverberate it to a redness in a moneths space the vessel being so closed by reason of the ashes as the fire may not be impeded from due operation After calcination draw forth the tincture with radicate Vinegar and further elaborate it by filtration separation of the menstruum and circulation with Cordial water Another Calcination of Stibium and Emetick Powder or Mercurius Vitae â„ž Of Antimony pulverised â„¥ â—iij Mercury sublimate â„¥ viij Mix them together and distil them in ashes by a glass Retort unto which annex a Receptory half full of water Afterward administer fire gradually until a gummose Liquor like butter adhere to the neck of the Retort which with a live coal externally applyed cause to resolve and it will be precipited into the water in a white powder Then leisurely give fire of suppression until a red Liquor come forth which beginning to appear remove the Receiver and apply another presently and intend the fire for an hour or two until the Mercury joyned with the sublimate sulphur of Antimony be sublimed to the neck of the Retort into Cinnabar The precipitate powder digest for one night and separate the water impregnated with spirit of Vitriol from the sublimate and keep it for dissolving Corals and Pearls Then upon the precipitate powder pour other water often until all its Acrimony be removed afterward wash it with Cordial water and dry it with most gentle heat Dose in strong constitutions is four or five grains but in the weak two or three grains in a roasted Apple or conserve of Roses It is beneficial in the Pest diseases of the Head Fevers Lues-venerea Leprosie Dropsie and in Ulcers But in exhibition hereof Cautions in exhibiting of Antimony to be observed those singular Cautions delivered by Crollius in his Basilica Chymica are to be observed the first whereof is That in the use of Antimony care be taken that no constipations be cholick dolours nor one of the principal Members hurt The second nor that in those to whom Antimony is given a vein be cut either before or after taking it The third that it be not exhibited to cholerick persons nor such as difficultly vomit and who have otherwise but little strength but unto those who are prone to vomit having a strong stomach a large and wide throat and who are otherwise accustomed with ease to vomit and in whom the sickly matter easily comes upward The fourth where vomiting is needful that a little pease broth gently boiled or fat broth of Hens or warm beer be exh bited and that certain times if need be that the sick may the more easily vomit and the action of the medicine be accelebrated Liver of Antimony or Crocus of Metals â„ž Of crude Antimony one pound of Salt-peter â„¥ xij Mix these in an Iron mortar where having first ground them well with a live coal set fire to the mixture and it will presently be Liver of Antimony Afterward separate the Salt peter Dose from twelve to twenty grains in infusion of white wine water of Carduus Benedictus or other convenient Liquors especially in Pestilential Fevers Another Calcination of Stibium working only by the inferiour parts â„ž Choice Antimony and salt decrepitate of each one pound these ground together and well mixed reverberate in a well luted crucible for twelve hours encreasing the fire to it by degrees The vessel cooled wash the matter so oft with Aqua dulcis as until all the acrimony be removed then dry and grind it Dose from twenty five to thirty five grains Regulus of Antimony â„ž Of Antimony Salt-peter and Tartar of each one pound mix these pulverised well together then set a crucible in the fire that it may be hot Which being done inject a spoonful of the powder and presently close the vessel until the fume cease then removing the cover inject more of the powders and close it again so doing till all the powders be in after which give fire of fusion and shake the crucible that the Regulus may settle to the bottom The crucible cooled separate the Regulus from the feces and keep it And from the Feces a Sulphuraurate Diaphoretick may in this manner be made â„ž The feces of the Regulus as above prepared and reduce them to a Lexivium by digestion or ebulition then filter it hot through brown paper To this Lexivium when cold add a little distilled Vinegar and you will find the Crocus edulcorated by many ablutions Which dry and keep apart It wil be an admirable sudorifick and mundificative of the bloud most apt for expelling many diseases Dose from ℈ ss to ℈ j. Crâ—â—â—s Martis Stellate â„ž Of Horse nails ½ pound Antimony one pound make the Mars hot in a crucible then add the Antimony beaten and cover it giving fire of fusion afterward inject at times â„¥ â—j of Nitre and lastly pour all out into a Cone Again pour the Regulus into the crucible and add â„¥ j. of Nitre at times as above Repeat this Labour five or six times until you have Regulus Martis Stellate Diaphoretick Antimony â„ž Of Antimony and Salt-peter of each one pound mix them being pulverisate together then set a crucible in the fire that it may be hot when hot inject â„¥ â—j or thereabout of this mixtion and presently cover the crucible until the fume and noise cease Afterward â—nject more of the powder and close the vessel as above this do continually until all the mixture be put in then administer fire of Lâ—quefaction for a quarter of an hour Which being done and the vessel cold take out the matter and grind it mixing it as above with an equal quantity of Salt-peter calcine it in the same manner as before The matter afterwards being ground and edulcorated with ablutions reverberate in an earthen vessel closed for the space of twenty four hours until it be made a candid powder of whâ—ch the Dose is fifteen grains Another â„ž Of the venenate scum of the two Dragons once rectifyed â„¥ iiij On which when resolved in heat pour spirit of Balsamick salt â„¥ â—iij from this mixture distil away the Liquor in sand to a dryness The earth take out and when very well ground on it repour it s own distilled Liquor with â„¥ â—j of fresh Balsamick spirit and distil as before Afterward to the powder ground as before again pour on the distilled Liquor anew adding other â„¥ ij of spirit and proceed again as at first Then deliver the dry and ground matter to be examined by Vulcan for twenty four hours continually stirring it with a clean iron Instrument At length from it often abstract the Alcohol of wine
that a candid dry powder may remain It is of singular use in all pestilential affects and malignant Fevers generally infesting CHAP. XIII Of Calcination and preparation of Mercury MErcury is a Mineral body compounded of subtile sulphureous earth and water strongly commixed The earthy substance thereof must be purged from its gross sulphureous terrestreity and its watery substance from the superfluous humidity in it contained Mercury is two-fold natural and artificial The natural active Natural Mercury and well purifyed in Almagro near Calatrava in the Kingdom of Castile is found living per se flowing and coagulate into cinnabar which is extracted by force of fire This most ancient Minera Pliny calls the continent of eternal Liquor Like unto this is found in Idria a Village of the County of Goritz in Slavonia But the Spanish excels in goodness although Idria be more fertile But there is one thing remarkable and worthy of admiration viz. that although the bordering Towns and people of Idria are almost every year afflicted with a Pestiferous Lues yet from this evil they sometimes are wont to be wholly free which I going to that place about eight years since was confirmed to me by the people that a certain man of a very great age had observed it so in himself and had received like Information from his Ancestors From whence as well as from other innumerable examples it is found that Mercury is an Alexipharmacon against all corruption and putrefaction Also no less stupendious and nigh to a prodigy is that which I there noted There was a decrepit Old man who having spent the whole time of his Life in preparing cinnabar did perpetually tremble and he did so dealbate gold coin by compressing it in his hand as the native colour thereof did wholly disappear There is also other Mercury found in the Mountain called Gimnavoda six miles distant from Cracovia in Poland between Tarnava Ribie and Streletzky which at certain times of the year breaks out on the superficies of the earth especially in the Autumnal quarter Yet about the Feast of John Baptist I there gathered many grains like Pease in the roots of green things But this Mercury is very aqueous and far inferiour to that of Sclavonia as well as to the Spanish The natural is also found in many other places and sometimes in Gold and Silver Mines The Artificial Artificial Mercury and its way of preparing is sufficiently known to Artists viz. by resusitative salts as well from middle Minerals as Metals Yet in this City I have known many credible persons and of great Authority and Dignity who affirm they have extracted living Mercury not from Minerals only but from humane bloud first calcined and from Plants also That Mercury is the best The sign of the goodness of Mercury which if a dram of it be put into a very clean Silver spoon and that set over a fire shall after evaporation leave a yellow or white spot But what shall blacken the spoon before it can be adhibited to medicinal use must thus be purged â„ž Of Mercury and of distilled Vinegar of each one pound put them in a strong vessel with an handful of prepared salt stir them very well together for a quarter of an hour that they may be mixed and the Vinegar receive the blackness of Mercury to it self Then pour out the Vinegar with the Mercury into a glass-bason and so often wash it with warm water as until all the blackness and salsature be separated from it When it is dryed put it in the former vessel with Vinegar and salt as above repeating the former Labour three or four times and at last pass it through a skin But this is a vulgar and imperfect purgation a more perfect follows â„ž Mercury precipitate cinabarisate or sublimate mix it with two parts of its own weight of calcined Tartar or Calx-vive distil it by a glass Retort in fire of suppression or in a close Reverberatory applying a large Receiver half full of water So you will have Mercury purified better than in the precedent manner Yet the most perfect way of purifying Mercury than which a better cannot be given is the Amalgamation thereof with perfect bodies distilling it certain times by Retort every time removing the earthy sulphureous and fetent feces and a new amalgamating it and at length passing it through a skin A White Precipitate Mercury is dissolved in Aqua fortis and by affusion of salt water precipited into a white powder The dissolvent is by inclination separated and the precipitate by many ablutions with digestion freed from all its saltness and acrimony Then is it dryed and washed with Rose water and again dryed Dose internally from eight grains to ten chiefly in Venereal distempers It purgeth only by the inferiour parts A Red Precipitate After dissolution of Mercury in Aqua fortis evaporate it to a dryness with violent fire and to the bottom of the vessel a Red precipitate powder will adhere especially fit for venereal Ulcers Precipitate Mercury From the best the best is made â„ž Of Mercury purifyed â„¥ iiij On which pour of oil of sulphur rectifyed â„¥ viij digest it for two days in sand then by Retort distil it three times cohobating lastly with violent fire that the Retort may be Red hot Which being done take out the white mass and grind it and with hot water wash it often until you see the precipitate turned to a most yellow powder upon which burn spirit of wine thrice So may it be securely given into the body Dose from three or four grains to six in purging Extracts conserve of Roses or sugar of Roses It helps in infirmities caused by putrefaction of humours and in deplorable diseases It purifies the bloud in the Gout Dropsie and in all continued Fevers it is a principal Arcanum Another Calcination and Precipitation of Mercury Mercury distilled from Sol or Luna and purifyed as above either per se or with an eighth part of Sol or Luna precipitate into a Red powder in this manner â„ž A small vessel with a long neck in which put â„¥ iiij of Mercury place the vessel upon an Iron plate in a fornace of sand administring a continued fire for the space of fourty days The neck of the vessel must stand above the sand six or eight thumbs breadth and for the first ten or twelve days the Mercury that shall ascend to the neck of the vessel must be certain times a day every day thrust down and precipited to the fiery bottom with an Iron Rod having a Linnen cloath bound to the end of it as Geber teacheth This way of precipiting Mercury is not the method of the modern but ancient Philosophers The days being expired if any crude Mercury be found in the bottom it must be separated from the Red powder which hath wonderful faculties in medicine For it is a most excellent Cathartick in the Leprosie so kindly loosning the belly as it may safely
be given to Children and Women with child sharp humours it mitigates it purgeth out phlegm and amends the hot and dry constitution of the bowels Dose six grains Another Dissolve Mercury in Aqua fortis and precipitate it according to Art by exhalation of all its humidity that the precipitate may be Red. When pulverisate put it into a strong vessel pouring on it so much Vinegar three times distilled as will stand above it five fingers place the vessel in sand administring fire that the vinegar may gently boil for the space of six hours and the precipitate be wholly dissolved Filter the solution and upon it pour Liquor impregnated with the soul of the world and presently the Mercury will be separated from the Dissolvent which must be washt and dryed and so reserved for use Dose from four grains to five Precipitation of Mercury in a moment Put the Red pulverisate matter in a crucible exposing it to a violent fire for four hours space until it do in a manner begin to vitrifie and adhere to the sides of the crucible Then remove it from the fire and when cold grind it to a subtile powder and put it into a glass vessel pouring Aqua Regis rectifyed upon it then set it in digestion for twenty four hours which time elapsed by inclination evacuate the tinged water and pour on other water repeating the same Labour so oft as until it shall have extracted all the Tincture The evacuations distil to an Oleaginy Of this oil â„ž â„¥ j. and pour it upon â„¥ iiij of crude Mercury and so it will be precipited in a moment Nor will the oil adhere to the Mercury if it be distilled off with strong fire After exhalation of the oil some of the Mercury will be sublimed but the greater part will remain fixed It s use is in augmentation of Sols and most red vitrification A Diaphoretick Precipitate Dissolve Mercury distilled from Sol or Luna and purged as above in Aqua fortis which in a vessel with a long neck and proportionate Alembeck annexed abstract by fire of the third degree with double cohobation that the Mercury may be made Red which must afterwards be edulcorated by calcining in a crucible placed in the fire continually moving it with an Iron rod for a quarter of an hour or thereabout or else with the following water â„ž Of distilled vinegar two pound of the phlegm of Allom ½ pound of reverberated Calx of Egg-shels â„¥ vj. distil them together to a dryness Of this water â„ž three pound of the aforesaid precipitate Mercury one pound mix and digest them for one day natural afterward distil them by Alimbeck with three cohobations toward the end encreasing the fire that the matter may be well dryed which circulate for one day natural with spirit of wine Then separate the spirit by distillation and again circulate and distil it Repeating the same labour the fourth time This is the true preparation of precipitate Mercury for expelling infinite diseases and especially Lues Venerea whether it be internally taken for so elaborated it only provokes sweat or externally applyed with Butter or any other medicament A Diaphoretick Precipitate of Cinnabar â„ž Of vulgar cinnabar â„¥ j. Of prepared salt Ê’ij Grind and mix these together and in a convenient vessel pour on them of oil of sulphur made per Campane â„¥ iij. digest these three days in ashes afterward by violent fire cause all the humidity to evaporate In the bottom a white mass will remain which must be edulcorated by frequent ablution Dose from six grains to ten chiefly in venereal distempers It is given with conserve of Roses and three or four ounces of decoction of Sarsaparilla Diaphoretick Mercury of Venus â„ž Of filings of Copper â„¥ j. Of Mercury meteorisate â„¥ ij Mercurial salt â„¥ ij ss Put these ground and mixed together in a strong vessel which place in sand and administer fire until all be melted as wax Then take the vessel hot as it is and put it in cold water that it may break in sunder and the greenish Mercury flow out which when dryed put into a smal Retort with spirit of sulphur or Vitriol and in ashes set it in digestion for one day natural Which being done distil it in sand twice cohobating it then wash it twice or thrice and the last time with cordial water It is a most excellent Diaphoretick Bezoardick Remedy against the Pest if two hours after the first assault of the disease it be taken in Liquor it preserves from death Dose one or two grains in appropriate water CHAP. XIV Of Calcination of Saturn and Jupiter SInce as Geber saith solution of bodies is imposible the composition being unknown before we come to calcinations of Metals to speak somewhat touching the natures of them will be in this place very suitable Rightly did Hermes the Father of Phylosophers understand when he said That which is superiour â—s as that which is inferiour For by the same reason â—s nature doth produce Plants and other Vegetables â—n the superficies of the earth so doth she in subterâ—anean places generate metals though more slowly 〈◊〉 in a longer space of time of the humid unctuous â—pour of Argentvive and sulphur vitriolate by its own heat containing properties in it self decocting Mercury Whence Hydrargyry is said to be the Mother of metals and sulphur the Father And in these are represented the four Elements which are the remote matter of all natural bodies For Mercury as Feminine cold and humid holds the property of water and air and sulphur as masculine hot and dry bears the representation of Fire and Earth If any shall affirm that as well of the vapour as juicyness found in Mines the matter of metals consists I will not gainsay it For when I the last Summer in Hungaria descended into the Silver Mine in Schemnitz about fifteen hundred Cubits deep I Learned of the Miners who by reason of the exceeding heat of the Mine did work without any cloaths not having so much as a shirt upon their naked bodies that Mineral vapours did frequently arise from the center of the earth and extinguish their lights and themselves also if they did not make haste away and that some time after when they entred the Pit they should find those damps or vapours coagulated into a mass to the sides of the wall which with a gentle touch would be fluid as oil Whence it may safely be inferred that the vapour is the more remote matter of Metal but the sulphureous and mercurial juice the more near matter of the same Also I have at present with me mineral Stones from the same Mine and others which either the vapour or such an unctuous humid mineral juice hath penetrated and in some of them is plainly to be seen a crude matter not sufficiently cocted in others moderately cocted from one pound of which Ê’vj of pure silver may be taken and about ℈ ss of Gold In others is matter perfectly decocted
Alkalisate and circulate it It is profitable in Mania and other diseases of the Brain Calcination of Sol. Make Amalgamation of Sol by purifyed cement with six parts of Mercury as follows â„ž A thin plate of gold and cut it into exceeding smal pieces which put into a crucible placed in such an heat as the gold may only be red hot then in another crucible make your Mercury hot and presently pour it out upon the gold and mix them with a stick that they may be incorporated Then cool it and having admirably well washed the mass pass it through a skin and press out the superfluous Mercury that the mass may remain conveniently hard which must be long ground with double its weight of prepared salt in a glass mortar so as nothing of the Amalgama appear Put all this into a strong crucible covered and luted only a little hole left in the Luting and reverberate it for one day natural taking great heed that the gold melt not This being done you will find your gold calcined but the Mercury and salt vanished Then a new amalgamate your gold and pass it through a skin as above and mix it with double its weight of sulphurvive grinding them very well together After which put the mixture into an earthen glazed pan pourâ—ng on it the best spirit of wine unto which set fire that it may burn upon it After the deflagration of which and of the sulphur you will find the gold spungeous and much attenuated especially if the same process be twice or thrice repeated Some grind the Amalgama with flowers of sulphur and having put it in a crucible placed in burning coals they continually stir it with an Iron rod until the Mercury fly away in fume But before gold can be calcined with Philosophick calcination it must be cemented as is said either with vulgar or Regale cement The vulgar cement is thus made â„ž Of flour of Tiles â„¥ viij Salt prepared â„¥ iiij White vitriol â„¥ j. Salt-peter and Aerugo of each â„¥ ss The Regale cement which belongs only to most pure gold is thus made â„ž Of flour of Tiles four parts Salt-armoniack Salt-gem and common salt prepared of each one part These commixed and united must be moistned with Urine Some make thin plates of gold red hot before they are compounded and suffer them to cool that if any defilement adhere to the superficies it may be consumed and leave more free access and admittance for impression to the sharpness of the medicines All being duly prepared sprinkle the powder equally in the cementatory pot that it may be a finger thick Then put in your thin plates of gold moistned with urine in such order and so equally placed as one may not touch the other least body cohering to body the matter be burnt and by encrease of heat the edges be melted together Having disposed the first lay of plates in order as above then on them sprinkle of the medicine again the thickness of one finger and so proceed to lay in more plates and câ—â—er them so doing even to the brim of the 〈◊〉 which must be filled with the powder the same thickness as was in the bottom viz. the thickness of a finger transversed Lastly put on the cover without any spiracle if for vulgar cement but if for the Regale the cover must have a smal hole The fire must be administred to it for twenty four hours so as the pot may be always red The work ended cleanse the plates with an Hares foot from the powders adhering and wash them in wine and dry them The most perfect cement of all is that which follows Melt gold with double its weight of most pure Copper reduce them to plates or leaves as thin as paper which cement for forty or fifty hours in a strong fire making lay upon lay as in Regale cement is said with flour of Tiles common salt Colcothar Aerugo and a little salt armoniack mixed with strong vinegar In this Examen all the Copper vanisheth the incombustible sulphur and Tincture thereof remaining in the substance of the gold according as Geber in Chap. 18. of fornaces witnesseth who saith that from Copper a most clean tinging and fixed sulphur is extracted Metallick Bezoardick Dissolve of most pure gold in Philosophick water Ê’ij to which add drop by drop of gummose Liquor seven times rectifyed â„¥ j. In mixing these will be great ebulition Place the vessel upon hot ashes for three or four hours Then precipitate the matter in common water and wash it often Lastly with cordial water and then dry it And you will have a stone of wonderful virtue of which six grains egregiously provokes sweat Ceraunocryson Diaphoretick Dissolve most pure Sol in Phylosophick water and digest it for one night in sand Then pour upon it oil of Tartar drop by drop until the ebulition cease and the Calx of gold be precipited to the bottom which must be edulcorated with many ablutions and with most gentle fire dryed Dose three or four grains Of this Diaphoretick another more excellent may be prepared in this manner â„ž Of this Ceraunocryson five or six grains and put it in a smal silver vessel and on it pour the best rectifyed spirit of wine which set on fire and hang a Chrystaline glass with a sufficiently large Orifice over it As soon as the spirit of wine ceaseth to burn the Ceraunocryson performs its office and a certain earthy part will be sublimed to the sides of the glass Repeat this Labour four or five times and wash the glass with spirit of wine that the Câ—lx may settle to the bottom which must be dryed Dose one or two grains CHAP. XVII Of Salts The way of extracting essential Salts from Herbs without calcination â„ž A Great quantity of Carduus benedictus bruise it in a stone or wooden mortar afterward in a large vessel with a great quantity of water boil it until half be consumed then strongly express it and strein the expression The Colature again boil to the thickness of Liquid honey This juice of Carduus benedictus put into a glass vessel and set it in a cold place for certain days in the bottom of the vessel a christaline salt angular like salt gem will be generated From which pour off the juice wash it with water of Carduus benedictus and when dryed diligently keep it For it is a most excellent Remedy in the Pest if two grains more or less be exhibited in spirit of Carduus benedictus they abundantly provoke sweat By the same reason and in like manner a salt may be extracted from other herbs which shall in virtue far exceed that which is made of the ashes of herbs Essential Salt Cream or Chrystals of Tartar â„ž White Tartar of Montispeliensis which is the best reduce it to powder and in a large brass or iron Kettle boil it with a great quantity of water until half the water be consumed Then remove it from the fire and if you
will pass it through Hyppocrates sleeve or a Linnen cloath into a firm earthen vessel When it is cold pour off the water by inclination and the Salt adhering to the sides of the vessel by frequent affusion of water gather being separated from the feces And again as above boil it wash it separate it from the feces and dry it Then reduce it to powder of which the Dose is ʒj in a little broth or appropriate medicine It hath virtue of breaking thick and tartarous humours and of opening obstructed passages Salt or Askali of Imperatory Calcine the herb dryed to a whiteness extract the Salt with distilled water of the same herb or else with common water digesting it for one night Afterward pour off the water by inclination taking heed you disturb not the feces Pour on other water the second and third time digesting and evacuating without disturbing the feces as before Then filter and coagulate the three evacuations together If the coagulum be not sufficiently white calcine in a crucible to a redness taking heed it melt not then resolve filter and coagulate it Thus is Salt extracted from all herbs but in such calcination the volatile or essential salt perisheth and the elemental salt only remains Salt of Tartar Strew or spread Tartar in an earthen unglazed vessel with a flat bottom the thickness of one finger Afterward reverberate it to a whiteness for the space of five or six hours with a fire so moderate to prevent fusion that the vessel may be but just Red. The Tartar thus calcined to a whiteness pour out into common water digest it then filter and coagulate Salt of Corals This is done by digesting Corals beaten smal in vinegar thrice distilled for one night Afterward the solution is filtred and the vinegar evaporated to a dryness So the salt of Corals remains in the bottom of the vessel Its virtues are excellent for it cleanseth the bloud throughout the whole body restores the pristine vigour of health Fluxes of the Womb and Belly and Hemroides it stops It strengthens the heart and stomach removes obstructions of the bowels and dissolves congealed bloud It is profitable in the Dropsie Convulsions Paralysie Stone Suffocation of the Matrix if exhibited with water convenient against preter-natural affects Dose from ten grains to ℈ j. or ℈ ij with respect to age and the vehemency of the disease Salt of Colcothar The Colcothar is put into Rain water and the salt by digestion for one day or night comes forth into the same is filtred and coagulated If the remaining redness be five or six times again calcined and the saltness every time washed out it at length will be sweet and is called sweetness of vitriol which will be the greater if the Colcothar be prepared of vitriol of Venus and it is a present Remedy in malignant Ulcers Vomative Vitriol Dissolve white Vitriol in common water filter and coagulate it repeat the same Labour the second time After which dissolve it in Rose water and coagulate Otherwise Dissolve white Vitriol in distilled water filter it in a glass vessel exhale the water until it contract a skinnyness Then set the vessel in a cold place that it may be Crystallized The Crystals separated the remaining humour evaporate and again set to Crystallize as above and this Labour repeat the second time Thirdly dissolve the Chrystals in Rose water and as before exhale and Crystallize then with gentle fire dry the Crystals Dose from ℈ j. to ʒ ss in a draught of Wine or Beer or with Conserve of Roses It happily operates in Fevers Affects of the Ventricle Catharrs Maw-worms Pest c. Salt or Vitriol of Mars ℞ Spirit of vitriol or oil of sulphur per Campane although not rectifyed ℥ j. With this mix ℥ ij of common water Unto this mixtion add ℥ j. of filings of Iron all which in a close vessel place in hot ashes that it may boil very gently for the space of six hours Afterward permit it to cool and in the vessel you will find vitriol generated green and splendid which is dissolved in hea◠and in cold coagulated Salt or Vitriol of Venus Reduce calcined Copper or scales of Copper to a subtile powder which digest in distilled vinegar for one day natural The tinged vinegar by inclination pour off and repour on other so often as til it be no more tinged The evacuations filter and evaporate or distil off three parts what remains in the bottom of the vessel set in a cold place and so a green obscure shining vitriol will be generated Otherwise Plates of Copper with a like quantity of sulphur beaten as is said in calcination of Venus are reduced to a subtile powder and in an earthen pot with the beaten sulphur are calcined by a continued stirring the mixtion with a rod of Copper til all the sulphur be burnt The Calx again is ground and with an eighth part of its own weight of sulphur beaten smal calcined Then is it again ground as before and project into hot water being often stirred with a stick or Copper rod until the Calx be setled to the bottom and the water wax cold which being filtred is evaporated to a fourth part and put in a cold place to produce Azure Crystals or else by evaporation coagulated Salt of Saturn Put the Calx of Saturn or Minium in distilled vinegar or the phlegm thereof digest it for one day natural often stirring it then evacuate the Menstruum by inclination and pour on other until all the Saltness of Saturn be abstracted Filter the evacuations and in ashes or sand coagulate them If vinegar be the third time distilled from Salt of Saturn with cohobations and afterward spirit of Wine be poured on and thrice cohobated the Salt acquires so admirable a virtue in healing divers Diseases as if six grains be given in white Wine in the Pest it cures the sick in twenty four hours In the Dropsie three grains are given in white Wine four days together In the Cholick six grains with whitewine In the Leprosie also six grains in water of Fumitory continually for eighteen days together This Sugar inwardly taken by its coldness doth also extinguish Venereal Lust and is therefore profitable for those who are devoted to a single and Virgin Life Externally used it wonderously operates in malignant Ulcers Corrosive and Cancrous Cancer Woolf and such like Also it is a most excellent Remedy against putridness of the mouth and Ring-worms Blastings Inflammations Tumors and red Pimples of the face if applyed with convenient Oils or Waters CHAP. XVIII Of Flowers Flowers of Benzoin GRind Benzoin and put it into a round pot which close with a double brown paper wrapt up in manner of Hyppocrates sleeve and administer fire apt for sublimation gathering the snow like flores often These in the Asthma and all diseases of the Lungs are very profitable Dose ℈ ss in convenient Liquors or Syrups It is also a principal Remedy for
bunches and redness of the face Flowers of Sulphur These are prepared by mixing equal parts of Sulphur and Colcothar perfectly rubifyed and dryed and so mixed by subliming as shall be taught in sublimation of Antimony but this operation is performed in the space of eight hours nor is so much fire required as in Antimony They must the second time be sublimed with Sugar candid alone that they may be more efficacious in the Asthma and other affects of the Lungs Also this preparation of flowers is made by mixing one pound of the flowers of sulphur with one pound and ½ of flour of Tiles Or by adding to one pound of sulphur of Colcothar and salt decrepitate of each ½ a pound Or else per se they are sublimed without any other addition These flowers do powerfully resist putrefaction and therefore in the Pest the weight of ʒj either in Carduus benedictus Treacle or Syrup of Citron or else in water of Melissa is profitably used as well for Preservation as Curation They also preserve from Fevers and Epilepsie In Lues Venerea they provoke sweat In all diseases needing exsiccation they help and are very beneficial in all Affects of the Lights the Asthma the Cough as well of long continuance as what is newly taken Catarrhs flowing to the breast Pleurisie Cholick Imposthums and Putrefactions of the body Flowers of Antimony Choice Stibium reduced to a subtile powder and put into an earthen pot with a blind head super-pofited in the top of which must be an hole for exhaling the humid spirits and a moveable stoppel fitted to the hole must be sublimed according to Art administring fire gradually for ten or twelve hours for receiving white flores but for Citrine twenty four hours and for the red flores thirty six hours continuing and encreasing the fire Sublimate Mercury ℞ Mercury purged with prepared Salt and Vinegar and passed through a skin Vitriol rubifyed Prepared Salt of each one pound Salt Nitre ℥ iiij Grind and mix them together in a stone Mortar with a little Vinegar so long as until the Mercury no more appear Living All being well mixed put into a cucurbit Luted with an Alembick having a short neck annexed with Recipient adjoyned administring fire by degrees artificially for eight or ten hours The Aqua fortis which first comes forth keep For the second sublimation to one pound of sublimate add of Salt prepared ℥ xij and of Vitriol ℥ iiij If the third time sublime it with salt only A sweet Sublimate ℞ Of Mercury purged as above ℥ vj. Mercury sublimate ℥ viij Grind and mix them together with one pound of Colcothar well and perfectly rubifyed Then sublime the mixture from a convenient vessel placed in sand for the space of five or six hours The second time sublime it with ½ pound of Colcothar The third time per se only Instead of Colcothar prepared Salt may be used if any one be so minded The sublimations ended reduce the mass into a subtile powder which wash with Rose water and dry it Dose from twenty grains to thirty in Lues Venerea Otherwise ℞ Of Mercury sublimate ℥ vj. Silver foliate ℥ ij By grinding mix these together and sublime them in sand The vessel cooled separate the volatile part and grind what is fixed and Crystaline and mix it with the feces residing in the bottom The second and third time subliming as above and in the end washing the sublimate when dryed keep it for use Dose from six grains to eight or ten It purgeth gently Manna of Mercury Dissolve Mercury in Aqua fortis Afterward precipit it in Sea water and from a cucurbit placed in sand distil it toward the end encreasing the fire that the Mercury may be sublimed to the sides of the vessel The vessel cooled and the feces residing in the bottom of the vessel removed gather the sublimate apart And again in the same water dissolve and distil it as above So will you have the Celestial Eagle more white than snow the use whereof is chiefly in Venereal distempers Dose from ten to fifteen grains It purgeth only by the inferiour parts CHAP. XIX Of Magisterys A Magistery is when the mixt body is so prepared by Chymical artifice without extraction as all its homogeneal parts are preserved and deduced to a more noble degree either of substance or quality the exteriours of impurity being segregated Magistery of Tartar ℞ Oil of Tartar made of the resolved and purifyed Salt ℥ iiij Spirit of Vitriol ℥ i. which instil upon the Oil of Tartar into a large glass drop by drop and it will be a most white Coagulum The supernatant humidity remove by gentle heat unto the dryness of salt upon which distil spirit of wine three or four times And so you will have a white fixed Vitriolate Tartar It s use is in all obstructions of the bowels in the Stone Nephritick dolour Jaundies retention of the Menses melancholy hardness of the Spleen Fevers and the Dropsie if conveniently adhibited Dose from ℈ ss to ℈ j. Magistery of Pearls and Corals Dissolve Corals or Pearls beaten smal in water made very sharp with spirit of vitriol Digest it for one night and upon the Solution first filtred inject oil of Tartar drop by drop til it be like milk Then pour upon it common water and digest it and so it will be precipited in bright powder to the bottom of the vessel The water must be separated and other poured on three or four times until all the Acrimony be separated Then dry the powder and keep it for use Margarits in temperament and virtue do very much emulate Gold and therefore do comfort the vital spirits of the heart and remove palpitation of the heart deliquiums of the mind and Vertigo's And ought deservedly to be mixed with all Cordial medicaments They excite Venus resist melancholy dealbate the Teeth comfort the memory and corroborate the young in the womb They dry up all depraved humours in the body and preserve all parts of the humane body from corruption The virtues of Corals are spoken of in the Salt of them Magistery Milk Cream or Butter of Sulphur ℞ Of flowers of Sulphur ℥ j. Salt of Tartar ℥ iij. Mix them and pour upon them of common water three pound digest all in sand for one day natural with such heat as toward the end the water may almost boil afterward filter it hot through brown paper and upon it pour a sufficient quantity of distilled vinegar so the milky Cream of sulphur will by little and little settle to the bottom Separate the Dissolvent by inclination and with frequent ablutions edulcorate it Lastly digest it with Cordial water and dry it And thus will you have a most white Milk or Cream of sulphur Which is the Balsom of the primogeneal humidity It comforts the natural vigour purifies the bloud Diseases of the Lungs as the Asthma Cough and Ptysick it cures In drying up Catarrhs in removing windinesses of the
of the Tartarisate Quintessence distilling it by Alembick to a dryness Repour on other and distil it doing this so often as until the essence shall be distilled off sweet as when first poured on Which being done upon one part of this medicine pour four parts of spirit of wine without phlegm digesting it until the spirit be consumed So you will have the perfect conjunction of Sol and Mercurius Vitae The Dose of which is four drops in white Wine It is exceeding profitable in desperate diseases and in those wherof the cause is occult The End of the Second Book TYROCINIVM CHYMICVM OR CHYMICAL ESSAYS Book the Third CHAP. I. Of Quintessence Of the Quintessence of humane Bloud THE denomination of Quintessence is variously taken Sometimes it signifies any Chymical Species which hath put off the Elementary grosseness of matter and corpulent feces and is opposed to a Magistery in which almost the whole bulk of its substance remains only it is exalted and purifyed Sometimes also as we here take it it denotes an Aethereal Celestial and most subtile substance taken from the three principles of any mixt body dissolved freed by various Chymical Operations from their Elementary Sensible Corruptible and Mortal quality and coagulated either into one spiritual body or a corporeal spirit It is by some called Medicine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by reason of its eminency By others Elixir by reason of those famous virtues it exerciseth in preservation of the humane body from sundry diseases By others Heaven for a double reason First because as Heaven consists not of the four Elements but is made of a certain Aethereal matter and as it were a fift Element and is not obnoxious to corruption so also the true Quintessence is separated from all feces of Elements and although it be not plainly incorruptible yet it is reduced to that subtility tenuity and spiritual simplicity that it seems to contain in it self nothing of heterogeneity by which it should be corrupted Secondly because as Heaven powerfully acts on these sublunary things contributing Life to all and conserving them so also this Quintessence conserves the health of the humane body prolongs youth retards Age and expelleth every disease The Quintessence of humane bloud is in this manner prepared â„ž A great quantity of the bloud of sound men in the flower of their Age. Put it in Circulatory vessels of a convenient magnitude which place in B. M. continually boiling until the Dragon shall have devoured his own tail The vessels cooled take out the matter which will be like Liver and cut it to pieces very smal And in high Cucurbits with the same heat of Baln by distillation separate the aqueous element or phlegm The distilled Liquor repour upon its earth and set it in the former circulatory vessels in a boiling Baln for ten days as before Repeating the same process five times and the last time keep all the distilled phlegm The vessels being cooled take out the matter and put it into a large Retort applying a capacious Receiver in ashes distil off the air by fire gradually encreased The smal and thin clouds in the recipient dissolving intend the fire so as the Element of fire may also come forth in form of Red or Purple oil Toward the end a little Salt armoniack will sublime it self The vessels being cold separate the air or spirit from the fire or oil either by gentle distillation in Baln or by a Separatory The spirit with the Salt armoniack again pour upon the feces digest them for three days then by a new Retort distil off the spirit toward the end giving fire apt for sublimation that the whole spiritual salt or at least the greater part thereof may be sublimed and mixed with the spirit in the Receptory Again pour new spirit upon the feces digest and distil as above so often as until the earth be deprived of its soul which you shall know if when put upon a burning plate it fume not Note That before the spirit be animated it must be seven times rectifyed every time separating the phlegm and feces and part thereof reserved for preparing the dissolvent as afterward shall be spoken Calcine the black blacker than black in a reverberatory fornace with moderate fire in a vessel every where closed for the space of five days until the blackness be turned to a yellowish whiteness and so into a red colour Then will the earth be apt for receiving its animate spirit Digest it by Baln as long as shall be sufficient afterward by gentle distillation separate the insipid humidity Which being done revert upon the earth a ninth part of its animate spirit digest and distil as before Then give it the eighth part of the animate spirit afterward the seventh the sixth the fifth the fourth part so long with the fourth part imbibing it as til the earth be encreased to double of its own weight before imbibition And this is what Avicen saith know that the earth must be nourished first with a little of its own water and afterward with more as is seen in education of Infants Therefore often grind the earth and leisurely imbibe the same from eight days to eight days Decoct it and afterward moderately calcine it in fire And let not this Labour seem tedious to thee in so many reiterations for the earth brings not forth fruit without frequent moistnings Yet be wary least you too hastily imbibe the earth but do it leisurely by little and a little and with long contrition after the earth is dryed Wherefore in this the weight is diligently to be observed viz. least too much dryness or superfluous humidity corrupt the work And much coct it by assation as by imbibing the dissolution requires Thus far Avicen Whence also Geber saith Thereâ—ore from the multiplicit reiteration of imbibition and assation the greater part of its aqueousness is taken away and the residue by sublimation is removed Put the aforesaid earth into an high cucurbit having an Alembick and receiver annexed the junctures being very firmly closed so as nothing may respire give to it fire of ashes for the space of three days until the clean and white fume ascend and cleave to the sides of the cucurbit like Talck This is that which Clangor Buccina saith †A Phylosophik book so called therefore as much as you can subtiliate that body and coct it with clean Mercury and when the body shall have drawn and concluded in it self some part of the Mercury subtiliate it with as quick and strong fire as you can until it shall ascend in the likeness of powder most white as snow adhering to the sides of the vessel But the ashes remaining in the bottom is the feces and vituperate Scoria to be cast away having nothing of life in it Of the aforesaid Meteorisate Mercury â„ž â„¥ j. Mix it with â„¥ vij of the rectifyed spirit not animate Digest it for two dayes in Bâ—â—n then distil it by ashes
afterward by Baln with repeated cohobations until no feces be left Then circulate it for forty days It s use is for extracting Tinctures of Meâ—als and stones Of the same Mercury and its oil is made an Elixir for expelling the most desperate diseases in this manner â„ž Of this Mercury â„¥ j. unto which add an eighth part of its own weight of its proper oil rectifyed decoct them in hea of Athanor for eight days afterward with a sixt part and then with a fift part reiterating the former labour so often as until the matter become thick as syrup and by decoction will be no further hardned After this digest it forty days and it will be a most red stone of which the Dose is one grain or two in appropriate Liquor CHAP. II. Of the Quintessence of Wine IN circulatory vessels of a just magnitude digest a good quantity of rich wine in horse dung for a moneth Then in high cucurbits distil off the spirit in B. M. which afterward rectifie seven times each time separating all its phlegmatick humour Distâ—lling it so as in the seven times from forty pound of wine you may separate one pound more spiritual â—an the other for what is distilled between the spiâ—it and the phlegm is Aqua ardens Keep the spiâ—it in a glass vessel of such a magnitude as it may be â—alf full firmly closed that nothâ—ng may respire in 〈◊〉 cold place In the mean while distil the remainâ—ing phlegm to the consistency of Liquid honey What is distilled off revert upon the feces and again by gentle heat of Baln draw off three parts Then take out the cucurbit and set it in a cold place that the matter may Crystalize the Crystals washed from all filth so often dissolve and coagulate as until they resemble the Ice of most pure water Now if you desire by force of Art to have a fat and combustible oil from wine distil the pâ—legm separated from the Crystals in Baln unto the thickness of Liquid honey afterward in a retort placed in sand force it with strong fire First comes forth a water mixed with yellow oil then a red oil Lastly Rosin Unto the Crystals beaten very smal pour the spirit above reserved digest them in Baln for three days afterward distil off the spirit in sand repeating the same process so often as until the spirit be perfectly impregnated with its proper soul and the â—ody made so very dry as if put upon a glowing â—late it will yield no fume Then on the body â—â—rst calcined according to Art revert an eighth â—â—rt of its own weight of the animate spirit digest â—nd distâ—l it as before then give it a sixth part of the â—â—irit afterward a fift and then a fourth so often â—ontinuing the imbibition with a fourth part as unâ—â—l the greater part of the body put upon a burning â—ate shall vanish into air Then is fulfilled that â—hich Morienus saith This also it behoves thee to know that the soul soon hath ingress into its own body which with another body can by no means be conjoyned Having this sign cover the vessel and to it placed in ashes administer fire for the space of two days until the vegetable sulphur adhere to the sides of the vessel like Talck Of this sulphur â„ž â„¥ j. Of the pure spirit â„¥ iij. Mix and digest them for one day natural then distil them in ashes cohobating often until the whole body shall ascend After which twice distil it in a boiling Baln and circulate it for sixty days And having separated the Hypestasis which will adhere about the bottom of the Pellican keep the Quintessence of wine for curing infinite diseases to be used both internally and externally Also this Quintessence of wine may be perfected in a shorter space of time Yea when I did this in the presence and sight of certain of my disciples in the space of five weeks I finished it and with the same extracted a most red Tincture of Gold For as Geber witnesseth there are many ways to the accomplishing one effect and one intent But In this place I can never sufficiently admire why French and Germane wine circulated have not that admirable odour which Baptista Porta attributes to Neapolitan wine in these words Then open the mouth of the vessel and if such an admirable fragrancy issue out as with it nothing may be compared know that you are come to the desired end But if the odour or colour answer not close the vessel again and re-place it to be circulated until you shall have the aforesaid sign Nor is the Italian spirit of wine endued with such an odour as Rubens testifies For he in the second Chap. of the second Sect. on of his book of distillation in this manner writeth I would that good Man and most excellen Physician Eustachius Sancto Severinas had now lived For he not to speak of my own knowledge could have evinced by his experience most diligently acquired that Aqua ardens if circulated not only for a moneth but for two or three moneths yea for a whole year as Raymund prescribes can never be deduced to that sweetness of odour but rather will be found more hot and be rendred more acid as who so will may easily prove and reason it self by observation of the fire and motion perswades the same But Raymund did not understand or intend that of simple and pure Aqua ardens as some of late have thought but of that in which the metallick body was dissolved For in the second Canon of the first book he thus writeth But this Quintessence so circulated and rectifyed will not possess such an odour unless the body be distilled in it Whence it appears that Porta drew not such a Quintessence of wine from his Labour in the fire but from the writings of Lully and John de Rupescissa evilly understood CHAP. III. Of Quintessence of Corals FIrst a great quantity of most sharp vinegar must be distilled with separation of the phlegm for this work wholly unprofitable Distilling it nine times upon the former feces until you shall have about a hundred pound of vinegar most perfectly rectifyed per Baln Also you must have thirty pound of red Corals reduced to a most subtile powder likewise many large vessels with long necks in every of which one pound of Corals must be put unto them pouring on of vinegar leisurely and at times to prevent ebulition so much as may stand above them four or five fingers then they must with the vinegar be digested in Baln for one day natural or until the vinegar wax sweet and be invested with a yellow colour Which being done pour off the Menstruum and repour on fresh repeating the same Labour til what is dissolvible be dissolved Put the evacuations in high cucurbits and abstract the Menstruum by heat of Blan. then to every one pound of the salt pour â„¥ ij of vinegar and distil it which being done again add â„¥ iiij after â„¥ vj. and so