Apparatus for Distillation

The image shows a brick furnace on the left with a chimney and a firebox, heating a bowl-shaped container labeled 'D' which holds a retort labeled 'A'. The neck of the retort extends into a double-bulbous vessel labeled 'B', which in turn connects to a spherical receiver labeled 'C'. To the right of the apparatus, a legend provides the names for the labeled parts in Latin.

This diagram appears in Robert Fludd’s 'Utriusque Cosmi Maioris scilicet et Minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia' (1617–1621), representing the technical methodology of early modern alchemy and natural philosophy. It illustrates the standard chemical procedure of distillation, fundamental to Paracelsian medicine and laboratory practice in the 17th century.