consent and dissent and whence these hidden qualities arise are hard to be found And it is more hard to find out individuals in man as Balm and Walflowers If Paracelsus could have done it he had done well for profit for as cold and heat moisture and driness are in man because the Elements are in him and as the vital heat in the heart like that in the Heavens is sent to the whole body therefore because they say the properties of Balm and other plants are in man let them shew in what subject they are and where they lie They are also because the knowledg of man is only from outward things for there is more in the species then in the genus or general and there is more in man who is the end of Natural things then in other Naturals and what man hath in him he hath as a man Therefore the soul that loves truth is not satisfied with similitudes onely but desires solid demonstrations and volves things from their own not from the principles of another And as they who think they have demonstrative arguments are often deceived much more may they who use only comparisons There is nothing so like but in some part it is unlike Moreover the Chymists know not the great World all over how then can they bring us to the knowledg of the little World thereby If they know it perfectly let them examine themselves if they can arrogate that unto themselves truly Chap. 7. Of the first Matter THe Modern Chymists call Aristotles first matter a changing Protous a lustful Thais and a deformed Monster Paracelsus cals the first Matter of all things a great Mystery and saies thus of it As a Child is born of its Mother In Philosophia ad Atheniens so are all things from the great Mystery and this is the Mother of all corruptible and mortal things But these are but trifles being without reason and to be rejected or they are taken from the Greeks and involved with hard Names That some Paracelsians are forgers appears in that Paracelsus speaks otherwise of the first Maâ—ter then his followers and both without reason For Paracelsus and Dornaeus say all created things are from the first Matter and great Mystery stery But the late Chymists say the first Matter was put into rude mass which was before it By Mystery Paracelsus means nothing but the Matter which invisibly contains somthing in it self or that out of which somthing comes that was not observed to be in it So Dung is the Mystery of Beetles Milk of Cheese and Butter and Whey Cheese of Worms or Mites And to explain him It is an Idea or Platonick Soul of the World or the Chaos which many Philosophers mentioned For Paracelsus his great Mystery is like the Idea of Plato for Plato writes thus If this World be beautiful In Timaeo and the Maker good it is plain that it was made by an eternal and permanent Pattern Lib. de anima mundi And Paracelsus calls this Idea The great uncreated Mystery and saith all things came from it and as it is uncreated it agrees with Plato's Idea Lib. Philoso ad Athen. In others it is the Chaos that ancient Philosophers mentioned Therefore Paracelsus told us no news but to make us think he did he gives strange names And he is out when he calls the great Mystery uncreated for it is against Scripture and reason that any thing should be uncreated besides God Therefore the Chymists ought not to inveigh against the first Matter of Aristotle so much let them take heed lest they speak against the Creator of all things and dispraise that which he saw to be good For in regard there is a difference between the Matter and the form and the generation and corruption and transmutation of natural things cannot be denied we cannot deny the first Matter The form only in the Elements is not the whole Essence nor is it from the form that a thing is of such a quantity therefore there is somthing in material things that with the form makes up the whole and sustains the form and in the Elements it is nothing but the first Matter And because all natural bodies are material they must needs partake of the common matter Let them that deny the first Matter consider that it is one thing to be begotten another to be created another to be corrupted another to be reduced to nothing Those are from somthing to somthing these from nothing to nothing And because one thing is made of another and the form is abolished there must somthing remain that is the subject of the change This Plato and Aristotle call the first Matter And though its Essence distinct from its form cannot be comprehended by sense but only by reason yet it is not a being only of reason or a meer figment but a real being and a substance or being distinct from an accident But it hath of it self properly no existence which is proper only to compound bodies But it is wholly a power not as to its being which it hath by its Essence but as to its being thus or thus nor was it created of God as a definite and distinct species of a natural thing but it is rather created together with natural things and is as it were a Rudiment and Principle nor doth it remain extant any time without a form but lies under it Chap. 8. Of the Elements Such is the confusion of the Chymists in explaining of the Elements that we need an Oedipus to interpret And which is worst they go contrary to the old Philosophers that is from known things to unknown by shewing of reasons And seem to command all men to believe what they say as if they were Gods and so wise that they might determine what they please Paracelsus denies not the Elements nor his Disciples but they speak of them otherwise then the old Philosophers do They say the Elements are visible and invisible The visible are the fire air water and earth which they scarce think worthy of the names of Elements but call them dead bodies without secrets In Praefat. lib. meteor philosoph Sag. lib. 1. Idea medi. c. 5. and that they are but shells of the Nuc-kernel contained in them having none but relolling qualities But they say their Elements are invisible and they are the essence life and act of all beings Paracelsus calls them the Matrices that bear and nourish fruit Nor say they can generations be made from these Elements but there are seeds in them all which at certain times do generate So his Element is whatsoever produceth and nourisheth fruit or any created species Severinus divides the Elements into two Globes to each he allows two Elements to the upper the Firmament Heaven Fire and Air to the lower the Earth Water And he saith each Element produceth its fruit The fruits of the Firmament are Manna and dew-Dew-waters Minerals Metals Stones and these Elements are not
mixed The modern Chymists follow Severinus and Crollius saith they are lighter but they are more dark Thus he writes In praefat admonit Our visible Elements are only the bodies and houses of others and keep off their force The Earth is twofold the outward visible the inward invisible The outward is not an Element but the body of the Element and is Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Element of the Earth is Life and Spirit in which the Stars of the Earth lie which by the body of the Earth produce all growing things and so of the rest In which he follows the Doctrine of Paracelsus but differs from Severinus and other Chymists But many things here cannot be proved First they abuse the word Element contrary to the custom of all ages for it properly signifies the least part of that from which the thing is made as from its matter But their Elements are only places matrices receptacles And the place differs much from the matter The wiser Chymists have three principles that come from the Elements or are joyned in the composing of natural bodies But Paracelsus puts his principles before the Elements and from one mixture of Salt Sulphur and Mercury and makes Fire In labyr med err from another Air another Water and Earth which no Philosophy can allow Others make the Elements vile and servile Bodies in disgrace of God and Nature who made all very good They serve God and man and all sublunary creatures and so are to be commended nor are they by that of no value or relolling as they say For the Chymists know their actions who can do nothing with heat and cold They erre also in making the Elements gross Bodies though the Earth be Also they erre in calling them visible they may see Earth and Water but when they will see air or fire I know not They foolishly say they are dead because they never were alive And it is worse that they say The Earth is cursed As for their invisible Elements Inexam philoso we shal believe it when they prove any such hidden under these for their affirmations only cannot creat new beings Libavius writes well of Severinus The good man saith he speaks well as if he came from the treasure of Nature and saw all open but he proves nothing Severinus his Eloments being without bodies and dimensions are not to be allowed for all learned men say the principles of bodies are corporeal He saies they are not infinite therefore they have dimensions and bounds Nor doth it hang together when he calls these incorporeal Elements empty and void and allows to them contrariety and resistence and explains their invisible Nature It may be that Paracelsus put one Element within another for the form and beginning of action and original of all qualities for when the external visible Elements which are inferior to their internal have noble qualities their Elements must have more noble qualities and actions but they never shewed us any yet They say in general only that they are vital and strong to nourish the seed of generation Nor do they prove that seeds are without their species in the Elements as they say Nor did God put seeds in the Elements in the Creation but into the species of natural things in the Elements Nor are seeds seen out of the individuals in the Elements but only in the individuals of their species Nor did God say in the Creation Let the seeds of Plants be in the Elements the same reason is in Animals All things have their seed in themselves and multiply by force of the Divine Word and so the species are preserved And to that they say from Orpheus and Hippocrates We know they spake often from the opinion of the Vulgar and themselves and many things are attributed to Hippocrates which were not his And many absurdities are among the Ancients most from ignorance of the Creation Erastus examines their Doctrine at large As for the first qualities which they value not but call relolling and dead It is foolish to fight against the experience of fense by which it is plain that the first qualities have great force for generation and corruption of natural things and are as considerable as scent savor and colour While we desend the Elements we must not adhere to them alone as some Aristotle knew above the Elemēts as in his Books of the Soul And when he saith 2. de generat anim c. 3. The vertue and power of every soul partakes of another body which is more Divine then the Elements and as the souls are more or less noble so is the Nature of that body For there is in all seeds which makes them fruitful which is heat not a fire but a Spirit which is contained in the seed or froathy body And the Nature in that Spirit is like the Element of the Stars c. Alexander Aphrodisaeus saith many things are in Nature that are known only by experience In proemio probl and are called by Physitians secret proprieties and accuseth them that say the causes of such effects come from the Elements or their qualities Galen accuseth Pelops his Master Lib. 11. de simpl facult Exercit. 101. sect 14. because he would bring all things to manifest qualities and Scaliger saith it is great impudency to Cardan thus What evil genius hath lead thee to say that iron may draw the Loadstone only by mixture of Elements Hence we see that Galenists and Aristotelians are not drowned in the qualities of the Elements Also they knew the Sympathy and Antipathy of things and we defend not them that know nothing but the first qualities For alteration or hurt from manifest qualities cannot kill a man so soon as poyson Secondly the first qualities have not very great force in a smal quantity but poyson hath a little spittle of a mad Dog lyeth somtimes above six months in the body and then offends grievously 3. delo art c. 7. which elementary qualities cannot do and so of other things as the Loadstone and Purgers and Antidotes Nor do occult qualities arise from a singular temper of things mixed unknown to us Lib. 1. de plantis called Idiosynorasia for occult qualities cannot arise from the first qualities For as Scaliger saith There is no savor or tast in any Element as it is an Element nor can it be in a compound from the Elements And if occult qualities are from a singular mixture of Elements may not life laughter sense and voluntary motion and the soul come from the same And to what they say the strange actions come from the form though the qualities are the instruments of forms and are directed by them yet they never loose their strength or Nature but only exercise them If any more noble action be done it is from other faculties and qualities meeting And while they are directed by their forms they act not beyond the strength of their species As things differ
of the power of Spirits and of Chymical operations what force hath thunder upon Metals What force hath Aqua fortis and other Spirits Nor let any say that Chymical gold is not true gold but apparent for the forms of things being hid from us we know them by their proper accidents and proprieties but Chymical gold hath all the proprieties of gold therefore it must be acknowledged to be true gold The proprieties of gold are that it be yellow not ringing malleable so that one ounce beaten may cover ten acres of ground and the third part of a grain may be drawn into wyer of 134. foot long as Cardan writes Lib. de varietate rerum De vanit scient to be incorruptible in air and water and to endure all tests by the assay-men Some with Agrippa say that the Chymists draw a tincture of gold which they give to other Metals and make them gold but onely so much as that was from which the tincture was drawn and so there is no profit But experience shews the contrary for Edward Kelley an Englishman at Prague in the house of Thaddaeus Haggecius turned a pound of Quicksilver into gold with one drop of a very red liquor and it is stil to be seen and the sign of the liquor sticks like a Rubie upon the Quicksilver so turned to gold and as much more gold may be made of the same let this one experiment serve turn Yet though this art be true it is very difficult as appears by the lost labors of many and none can easily attain to it by reading or practise There are many cheaters But let none trust him that promiseth this art for money First let them make gold for themselves which they commonly want I shall recite some of their cheats First they carry gold or silver in a stick with which they stir their Metals Others dissolve gold or silver in Aqua fortis and mix with Ink and write upon paper in which they put the Metal they pretend to turn Or they use the pouder of gold or silver as sand upon a letter Others mix gold or silver dissolved within charcole Others have false bottoms to their crucibles into which they put gold Others have filled great coles with gold and laid them upon the crucible But the greatest cheat is when they have gotten some of the true tincture and done wonders till they have gotten money but can go no further being ignorant The other end of Chymistry is for Physitians for first the medicines Nature afford us have often parts of divers strength and force but by Chymistry they are ingeniously separated The Chymists imitate the industry of the Ancients in preparing of meats by boyling and other preparations to make them pleasant and wholsom And the Ancients when the patient wanted much nourishment and could not well concoct found out consummate broath or cullesses in which the unprofitable parts for nourishment were cast away and that which nourished best was preserved Thus are Chymical medicines made powerful pleasant and safe and the Physitian may cure by them safely quickly and pleasantly For when the thick earth and unprofitable parts are separated from the profitable and spirital the thinner parts sooner pierce into the whole body and exercise their force And being given in a small dose and freed from unpleasant qualities they are taken without loathing and so work the better And some medicines that are rank poyson are prepared by the Chymist and made safe Nature is the Chymists leader which makes us wholsom Spaw-waters from Minerals and Metals by which desperate diseases are cured But observe that we here only commend the true Chymistry but hate the false Chymists who when they can prepare a medicine or two promise golden mountains and scorn all the Galenists when they themselves are ignorant in all good Arts chiefly in Physick and Philosophy And will be called by no other name then Hermecial Physitians when they may be more truly called Haeretical Physitians Chap. 3. Of the Inventors and and Users of Chymistry CHymistry had been no worse if it had been found out later for that is old enough that is good enough and there is nothing which was not new at the first Some suppose that all the Chymical Books were written but three or four ages since but they are out for we have Greek Authors that treat of it Some shew that Chymistry may be proved ancient say that Adam invented it Gen. 4. but this they cannot prove But the Rudiments of Chymistry were more probably invented by Tubalcain the Master of Iron and Brass And if he shewed how to fashion Metals he must needs know how to find them out melt and separate them and purifie them The Scriptures commend him for an excellent Metal-man and his Successors were iudustrious in the same And if they knew how to work on Iron and Brass they questionless knew how to order Metals After the flood the invention or propagation of Chymistry was by many imputed to Hermes Trismegistus and from him it is at this day called the Hermetical Art the vessels and seals of Hermes are so called from him And he was called Tresmegistus or thrice great because he was the chief Priest Philosopher and King or as others say the chief King Priest and Prophet He lived in ancient time about the 2000d year of the World heard Noah preach and was as the Learned say the Master of Chamephis or Chusus The Grecians as well as the Aegyptians honored him for antiquity and learning and imputed the invention of all Arts and Sciences to him They say he wrote 25000. Books all set forth in his Name Mesue mentions another Hermes that succeeded him and mentions a Hiera of Hermes and Pills of Alhandal of Hermes and so do other Physitians but these vulgar medicines were not worth of the Name of Hermes Trismegistus There is also a Smaragd Table esteemed by all Chymists which was found in the Valley of Ebron after the flood but the Author of it is unknown Some say it was found in the Sepulcher of Trismegistus by a woman called Sarah it is the foundation of all Chymistry and I shal here mention it The Smaragd Table To speak plain truth without lying it is most true and certain that what is below is as that is which is above and that which is above is like that which is below to perpetuate the miracles of one thing And as all things were from one by the meditation and invention of one so all things are from this one thing by adaptation or proportion The Father of it is the Sun the mother the Moon the wind carried it in its belly The Earth is its Nurse This is the Father of all Talism in the world The vertue of it is compleat if it be turned into earth you shall separate the earth from the fire gently with much ingenuity and that which is subtile from that which is gross It ascends from earth to
tartarous Diseases of which they speak often and many flie to that in time of ignorance they say then the disease is from Tartar but few explain what Tartar is Lib. de morb tar tar c. 1. Paracelsus rails against the Galenists because they call tartarous diseases sand or the stone because it is a Metaphorical appellation but in Physick we must speak properly and things must de denominated from their Nature which he doth not observe He saith the cause of this appellation is because an oyl and a water and a tincture are made of it which burns the sick as the Tartar of Hell therefore if the name be from the likeness of Hell fire it is taken from a similitude and is not proper Others extend the word Tartar larger then that it should be given only to the stone for they call a slimy humor by the same name which causeth the Colick corrosions and divers pains in the stomach Thus they cal divers things by the name of Tartar to which it doth not equally in reason belong and so is not proper But to the purpose agreeing about names let us see whether the Chymists and Dogmatists may be reconciled in this The Chymists have no clear definition of Tartar Lib. 2. de tar tract 1. c. 1. Paracelsus defines it thus It is stony disease or a bole or between a bole and a stone which hinders the effect and vertue of Nature Other Chymists say Tartar is that impurity in the nourishment under a resolved form that cannot be discerned but yet tends to coagulation and a stony Nature Some from Paracelsus say It is an excrement coagulated by its spirit Some Chymists seem to agree with the Galenists who say Tartar is a stone-making juyce or a matter by Nature apt to coagulate And this juyce is drawn from Plants with the nourishment and sent from Plants into Animals and then it hurts much when Nature is weak to concoct and void it They make four kinds of this Tartarous juyce Viscous bolare or like bole sandy and stony and hence come divers diseases in divers parts of the body First they bring most diseases of the stomach from Tartarous impurities when such a matter covers the sides of the stomach the vital spirits are obstructed which are the Author of all natural actions hence comes slow concoction compression loathing and the like and as the tinctures of the Tartarous spirits are stronger to wholly overcome the inbred spirits there follows want of concoction and nourishment But if these impurities have strange spirits with them they turn the nourishment into a strange nature and there is belching and stink and if they have vomiting properties as of Hellebore or Antimony they cause loathing and vomiting If they have the tinctures of Salts there is burning of the stomach gnawing and the like If of vitriolated Salt there is a Dog-like appetite Let us grant all this that we be not so unjust against the Chymists as Erastus Part 4. disp conâ—a para Yet this tartarous matter is not the onely cause of the hurt actions of the stomach for a hot or a cold distemper often hurts it Moreover from the opinion of Severine diseases breed from those tartarous impurities mixed or alone from the mixed come sulphurous stinking diseases thirst heat bitterness of mouth headach with cold and shaking called ordinary feavers But he thinks they come rather from their roots which are Niter with Sulphur Because he saith feavers have seeds and roots in which slimy and salt spirits with Niter are mixed with impure stinking dissolved Sulphur Therefore at set times when the mineral or matter of the disease begins to spring being nitrous Sulphur there is horror chilness panting and the like as the nitrous Sulphur differs As we are not in this enemies to them so let them be milder against the opinions of Galenists for first we must distinguish the seaver from the cause The cause is that matter which they call Nitrous Sulphur from the accession of which there is a hot distemper in the whole body by which all the parts are unfit for their offices and this preternatural disposition is called a feaver Nor must the name of humors be rejected for Niter or Sulphur are never vomited up or purged forth or sweat out but only humors Though we grant that the humors are set on fire by Sulphur we will not therefore reject the name of humors Scheunemamnus his opinion of the original of feavers is ridiculous he saith that a globe or bal of many Sphaeres like a Bezoar-stone is bred in the stomach or liver and thence come seavers and fits and when this ball is struck from Heaven it flames and smoaks and infects the air hence comes a little cold and trembling and then heat But this globe and its circles of which it is made ought to be very great because he writes that the patient shall have so many fits as are circles in it Against Severine I say the Colick cannot breed from a slimy Tartar mixed with stiptick or binding four spirits because he made one cause only of the pain of the Colick I agree with him about the name for the case is plain that the colick is from glass like flegm as Galen taught But if he make that the only cause he errs exceedingly because there are great pains from wind that extends the guts nor doth sharpness or wind cause pains but by stretching which being made to pass by a Clyster or two the pain ceaseth better then by the laborious Chymical medicines Ideo Philos 13. It is false that he saith the sharpest pains are only from the sharpest spirits of Salts he calls the pains from cuts burnings and stroaks Relolls But all men living do witness by sense that there is no greater pain then that from cutting and burning c. Severine proceeds and saies and describes the generations and differences of inflammations saying That the seeds of these diseases come to the matrixes not only in a liquid form dissolved but in a spiritual vapor and continual nutrication and digested fermentation and except the time of neaturity and separation which coming the spirits break forth and boyl And then the signatures that lay hid before in the spirits are explained colours tasts scents heat and other qualities And by nourishment daily attracted they make bodies agreable to the principles mattery slimy bloody coagulated dissolved stinking red black He brings the kinds of inflammations from the proprieties of the sulphurous spirits And Arsenick spirits make plague sores Orpiment spirits make Pleurisies not only in the breast but in the brain lungs heart liver spleen and stomach He accuseth Galen and other Doctors for saying That inflammations come from much blood violent exercise falls contusions And denies that these effects can come from these causes except some Arsenical seed cause the Plague or other the Pleurisie lying in the blood till it get an occasion to boyl For the breeding of ulcers
Salts have power to dissolve others to coagulate therefore they say that humors coagulated by Salt are to be cured by Salt dissolveth And they say that a feaver from burning Sulphur is not cured by burning Sulphur but by sharp Sulphur that may coagulate these Spirits that are on fire and allay them De prisc mat med c. 3. 3. and keep them burning Quercetan proves this by gun-powder for though Salt-peeter and Sulphur are easily set on fire yet both have a sharp Spirit with which if you touch the pouder it will flame no more Therefore in one respect the like cures the like and in another the contrary the contrary for between humors and things that dissolve humors there is a familiarity But in respect of the taking away of the disease and the causes contraries are required And thus much of the consent and dissent between the Chymists and the Galenists He that considers this wisely Lib. 4. Epist ad Andr. Blauv wil find that Chymical medicines are not to be neglected for Galenical nor Galenical for Chymical for as Mathiolus writes None can be an ordinary Physitian that knows no Chymistry and he is admirable that knows what is Divine in Diseases in Medicines and Nature and finds out the fountains of actions all which may be done by Chymistry but he that cleaves onely to the first qualities in things cannot come to this Other things that respect the constitution faculties and actions the causes and differences of Diseases and Symptoms the Signs Prognosticks and Method of Curing may be found in Hippocrates and Galen and their Interpreters He that neglects these is an Emperick and no Physitian AN APPENDIX Chap. 19. Of the Constitution of Chymistry IN this Appendix we suppose what Libavius wrote at large and Beguin in short and what we mentioned in the fifth Book of Institutions That though Chymical Opeperations and Medicines are there added yet here I will plainly lay down as in a Table the whole Nature of Chymistry and its Constitution from the places alleadged and add some admonishments This I shall do without calumniating any or detracting from them For two may differ in opinion And still in friendship keep communion All Sciences and Arts as they are found ought to stand upon some Principles that reasons may be given of things done in them otherwise it is rather an ignorance then a science yet Chymistry the most noble useful Art hath few things fortified with reason and brought from certain Principles for there are many proceedings and Forms of Operation of which few teach the causes and Principles so that it seems to be an Art without an Art But as Physick so Chymistry is wholly subject to the natural Science and must follow the Laws of Nature in working so that there may be a mutual consent between them both In the first Chapter of this Tractate there is the Subject Definition and a twofold end of Chymistry But laying aside the former end we shall here speak onely of the Constitution of Chymistry as it serves a Physitian and helps him to good Medicines and we shal propound some things in Operations which may serve for the last end A Chymist to obtain his end must have some means or Mediums which are Chymical operations and instruments by which he worketh Of which we shall speak in order As for the instruments the chief are fire or heat the Menstruum air and water but that agents may be applied to the patients there are required furnaces glasses and many other vessels We spake elswhere of furnaces glasses and other vessels and of luting Inst l. 1. part 3. sec 2. c. 11.12.14 and we added instruments for other operations And Chap. 2. we spake of fire and heat The Menstrua are whatsoever things serve for solution extraction and separation of bodies and this name is commonly given to liquors which cast upon bodies have an actual force to dissolve or extract somthing out as common Water distilled Waters Dew Spirit of Wine Turpentine distilled Vinegar and things distilled in it Spirit of Salt Niter Vitriol Aqua fortis and Regia of which in the place of my Institutions cited We may bring all these liquors into three heads some are watery some have Salt others are oyly bodies are not dissolved but by their proper dissolvers that answer to their nature The watery bodies are like water and are dissolved and extracted by watery Menstrua Sugar and Salt which melt in water dissolve salt bodies and no other Things spiritual are dissolved by Spirits salt things by salt Spirits and extracted by oyl and fats Metals and Stones by Aqua fortis and Regia and the like liquors And without Salt no Metal is dissolved because all Metals are of a salt nature therefore the first melting must needs be by Salts Mercury dissolveth gold not so much by corrosion as by similitude or an occult quality And Aqua fortis though it be very corrosive dissolves not Rosin Wax or Pitch but they are dissolved in oyls and fats Therefore get the proper Menstruum for dissolving of very thing Some understand by the word Menstruum not only liquors but other dry bodies which dissolve things as Salt Niter Sulphur which being added to Metals or Stones and resolved in a fire of reverberation insinuate into the bodies applied and dissolve them Thirdly Chymists must have air which conduceth two waies namely as it is moist and hath waterish vapors and as it is cold as it is moist it serves a Chymist when it is mixed with things by nature dry and makes them of a moist consistence this is when air gets into Salts in moist places and makes them melt And in some distillations the moist air causeth the Spirits that are by nature dry and come forth like clouds to turn moist as in Oyl of Sal Gem made by a bell in Spirit of Salt and Vitriol and the like Also air serveth in respect of its coldness for cold by accident and binding of Homogeneal bodies doth congregate therefore Salts sooner grow together in water then in heat Fourthly water is an instrument of the Chymists not only as a Menstruum to dissolve and wash but to mix it self with dry Spirits in a moist air I should add Earth and the like but for offence therefore in making Spirit of Salt and Niter Poters Earth Bole and sealed Earth are used In distilling some Oyls the pouder of Bricks Sand and Ashes are used First that the body to be distilled may be as fine and small as may be and be better healed Secondly least the glass should be broken by things that easily dissolve as Niter another body is added to make it dissolve gently Also the Chymists use other instruments for some operations as Oyl of Tartar to precipitate Pearl and Coral being dissolved and other for others but I doubt whether these may be added to the former instruments As for Chymical operations they are diversly divided and I let
every man use his own way I divide them into a Diacrisis and Syncrisis and Immutation Diacrisis is when the Fabrick of the Body is resolved and that which was one is divided This is done three waies 1. When the impure or strange bodies are separated 2. When the body is dissolved into Homogeneal parts 3. When it is dissolved into Heterogeneal parts In which operations let the Chymists take this proposition let all things be made as pure and subtile and efficacious as may be To the Diacrisis belong Purification Calcination Sublimation Resolution Extraction the Essence the Tincture Putrefaction and Distillation Purification is by washing and often dissolving and coagulating and filtration Instit c. 8. c. 10. of which elswhere To this belongs drying or exsiccation which is by evaporation and exhalation also burning as when the sulphurous parts and water which are not required to stay do flie away and that remains which you desire Calcination is either by actual or potential fire that is by a liquor that hath power to corrode and dissolve as distilled Vinegar Spirit of Salt Instit c. 6. Niter or Vitriol of which Chap. 6. Also Metals Minerals and Stones and other hard things are calcined Sublimation is to separate impurities and to bring bodies to the least Atomes By all these waies the body is dissolved into Homogeneal parts and that which is dissolved is homogeneal Resolution is when a body is dissolved into divers Heterogeneal parts In this Diacrisis note that the properties are in the whole or in the parts therefore when you desire the force which is in the whole you need not this operation but when you need the force that is in a part that depends upon the whole observe in what part it is So Conserve of Roses is good in a Dysentery not Spirit of Roses To this belong Tinctures and Essences Inst lib. 5. part 3. sect 3. c. 9. of which elswhere Concerning Tinctures observe that there is no true Tincture which doth not remain after the Menstruum is abstracted If many Tinctures were examined by this rule they were not true but that colour is from the mixture of the Menstruum with the body dissolved Diacrisis is also by Putrefaction which tendeth to a kind of separation as parts by nature somwhat separated may be better separated by art Instit. loc cit c. 7. therefore as we shewed it is often used before distillation To this head we refer all distillations by descent by the side by ascent in a moist bath dry or vaporous Instit. loc cit sect 2. c. 11. in ashes sand or open fire The second kind of Chymical operation is the Syncrisis when divers things separated are joyned together This is done first by precipitation when the body dissolved in some Menstruum and dispersed by a liquor is again separated from the liquor and goes to the body and unites it self And he that considers all precipitations Instit loc cit 3.13 may observe that precipitation is universally made when any thing is cast in for solution or infused by whose force the liquor dissolving or that which in the liquor is the cause or solution is separated from the body dissolved To this may Reduction be referred by which a body brought to a pouder or liquor or the like is restored to its first form yet reduction is not in all bodies that are dissolved by their Menstruum or put on another shape by the mixture of other things For though these may be separated from their Menstruum yet they are brought only into the form of a pouder not into their first form This is done best by Precipitation Reduction is used in Metals which being brought into divers forms may still be reduced Now reduction is by taking away the Menstruum and that which brought another form into the body The Salt of Tartar is an usual instrument for reduction not that it is contrary to all corrosives and breaks their force but because it is a friend to all Salts and therefore attracts them and unites them to it self by its likeness and so the body being freed from the Salt of the Menstruum that dissolved it is restored to its own nature Metals when melted or mixed with dissolving waters are filthy separated from their Menstruum by precipitation sometimes warm water is sufficient to separate a Metal from its Menstruum To Syncrisis also belongs coagulation and concretion of which in my Institutions Lib. 5. part 3. sec 2. c. 13. To this you may refer Digestion and Circulation which is for this end that the liquid parts which are not sufficiently mixed may be united by the least bodies of which elswhere C. 14. To this belongs Cohobation or an often distilling of the liquor cast into the matter let in the vessel this is that what was not separated in the first distillation may be drawn out in the second or third yet sometimes that the matter which is volatile in the liquor may be joyned to the fixed The third kind of Chymical operation is Immutation as when we bring a new manner of substance upon a thing To this belongs first the changing of a dry thing into a liquid form this operation is called Deliquium of which before For though the moist air is then joyned to that body Loc. cit c. 4. yet nothing is added that gives it peculiar strength but the consistence is only changed To this belongs that operation whereby solid bodies are made drinkable where we shall question whether gold may be made potable Of which hereafter Secondly to this belongs the contrary operation as when a solid body is made of a liquid as Precipitate of Quicksilver of which before Lib. 5. part 3. sec 3. c. 18. Thirdly Fixation or Volatilsation belong to this as when no part of the thing is taken away nor other thing added and a fixed body is made of a volatile and a volatile of a fixed It is called fixed or volatile in respect of the fire or heat the thing in its own nature is such but the heat or fire makes it manifest for that is fixed which endureth the first volatile is that which flies away by heat This is done by the addition of an Homogeneal body for fixed Salts may be made volatile by digestion and also sublimed Vitrification or turning into glass is the end of transmutation of natural bodies after they are melted by the strongest fire We have mentioned the operations which the Chymists use as means to obtain their end As for Chymical works they are under two heads according to the twofold nature of Chymical bodies Some are Homogeneal some are Heterogeneal but there are no words to express it Some cal the first work an Extract Libavius the last a Magistery And in the special explaining of these there are divers appellations as Ens Essence Quintessence the Secret Magisterium Panacaea and the like but these are
Oyl or Volatile Salt by a Retort From Stones bred in mans body there is made a Salt and Oyl and a Magistery from Pearl Crabs eyes Perch stones but I doubt that the spirit of Pearl is mixed with a Menstrual Salt therefore I suppose that Pearl vulgarly prepared is wholsomer in many diseases As for Minerals and Metals they are objects of Chymistry Of Amber there is an oyl Of Sea salt or other a Spirit or Oyl Of Niter is made Sal Prunellae From Sulphur there is flour by sublimation of this flour there is a Tincture and Balsom of Sulphur with spirit of Turpentine and Wine and of the same flour is Lac Sulphuris made The Chymists talk much of the oyl of Talk but of it self it is not made into a liquor but being calcined with a strong fire or with Niter and Vinegar sprinkled upon it the volatile Salt in the Vinegar unites it self with the caclined Talcum and then melts he that can shew better let him From Gemms are made Magisteries then Tinctures but if any coloured Liquor be from Gems it is rather the dissolving of the Gemms then an extracted Tincture Things made of Minerals and other metals are not so easie we shall speak a little of some of them From Vitriol by distillation is first drawn a Flegm and Spirit Spirit of Vitriol is thus made Take Vitriol as much as you please calcine it yellow pour enough of the spirit of Wine upon it to make it like a Paste distil it rectifie the spirit when it is extracted thence make a salt of Vitriol by pouring hot water upon the Caput mortuum or Lees. I see no cause why this may not be counted a Salt Some labour to make a green spirit of Vitriol Antimony first may be calcined and then it is called Crocus metallorum from its Saffron-colour You may make flour of the same by calcination There is also a Stone or Glass made of Antimony Some make a Tincture a Regulus and a Butter Antimony is made Diaphoretick and loseth its purging quality by the mixture of fixed Salts this is done when Antimony is often melted with Niter for Niter gives another kind of substance to Antimony and makes it of volatile fixed this is so hard as Crollius writes wittily the art of Fire cannot take away the force of causing Vomit from Antimony though many have attempted it because they abhor that quality of vomiting nor hath any Chymist this preparation though many brag of it for if the vomiting quality be gone the purging quality must go with it Nor is it an argument because some vomit not after Antimony is taken by them for that is from the strength of the stomach or the disposition of the humors to be evacuated Let us speak a little of the Physical use of Quick-silver this only shews that one thing keeping the same internal form and nature may have divers external forms it may be dissolved sublimed precipitated poudered made to flour-like silver into glass to be like a metal coagulated and changed and many waies transformed in divers liquors yet so that it easily comes to its old nature flies away and is fixed nor is there any heterogeneal part that may be separated of it are made first many precipitates of which there are many descriptions some call it Turbith others distinguish it Also there is Mercurius vitae Crollius cal'd it the flour of the butter of Antimony but wrong Of the same is made a Bezoard Mineral then there is an ordinary Sublimate and a Mercurius dulcis the secret of Coral is a kind of Sublimate Also there is a Silver flour made of Mercury In Apocalyph hermetica and waters oyls and spirits Libavius hath described the Mercury waters As for other metals some are fixed others not the fixed are Gold which alone loseth nothing though long in the fire and Silver which because it is more fixed then others is counted fixed as Gold we shewed in our Institutes the calcination of metals by fire and a Menstruum Lib. 5. p. 3. s 3. c. 5. 6. From Lead is made Saccharum Saturni if this be put into a Retort and distilled there is made a liquor called oyl of Lead Of Tinn is made a Crystal and oyl or liquor Of Steel is made Crocus martis of which there are divers descriptions and tinctures If Vitriol be dissolved in water and spirit of Vitriol it is after coagulated into Vitriol Vitriol is made of Copper called Vitriolum veneris Of Silver is made a Tincture There are many disputes of drinkable Gold but I suppose that what is sould for potable Gold is only the Magisteries mentioned and Gold dissolved into the smallest parts and mixed with a menstruum divers menstruums are carried about the force of dissolving in all which lies in the Salt And Gold is to be brought to that pass that it may be dissolved in spirit of Wine or other liquor which may be done by divers Menstruums And in all the end is that the body of Gold being thick and compact may be resolved into very fine atomes that being taken in it may with more ease exercise its force upon the body Therefore first they use stronger then weaker menstruums and if any menstruum be an enemy to nature it is separated by the fire or by washing But then the Gold doth not of it self dissolve into a liquor but by reason of Salt that is mixed with it from the menstruum FINIS