Chemical Theater, or the Opened Door of Chemical Secrets

them and could compel them, if he had not known how fire could work upon them; and thus, from simple arts, through fire and water, thousands of changes and improvements have come.

I have therefore considered it my bounden duty, dear Reader, to traverse all the most prominent authors and to write out all the preparations original: preparatien; specifically, the chemical or alchemical processes used to create medicinal substances. that one would wish to have in the medical art original: genees-konst; the practice of medicine and pharmacy., from both ancient and modern contemporary writers—the latter of whom write more clearly than the ancients. For the ancients made their works incomprehensible with obscure allegories original: duyſtere ſpreek-woorden; literally "dark proverbs," referring to the cryptic, symbolic language used by alchemists to keep their secrets from the uninitiated., and among these are chiefly Hermes Trismegistus A legendary Hellenistic figure viewed as the father of alchemy and hermetic philosophy., Geber the Arab Refers to Jabir ibn Hayyan, a 13th-century writer (pseudo-Geber) whose works were foundational to European alchemy., Paracelsus The 16th-century Swiss physician who pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine., and a thousand others, of whom some disciples still seem to remain today. Among these one finds Joh. Hollandus, Daniel Milius, some in the German Ephemerides original: Ephemerides Germanicæ; the first scientific journal of medicine and natural history, published by the Leopoldina Academy starting in 1670., G. Vreeswyk,