Chemical Theater, or the Opened Door of Chemical Secrets

Chemical Secrets.

or gluey substances, such as asphalt, amber, ambergris, petroleum, sulfur, arsenic, and antimony; or substances properly called earths, such as the various types of bolus A type of medicinal clay., Lemnian earth original: terra lemnia; a famous medicinal clay from the island of Lemnos., and chalk.

VIII. The vegetable kingdom encompasses plants and their juices, such as wine, oil, vinegar, resins, fruits, white milky substances, etc.

IX. The animal kingdom includes all types of living creatures, whether they be beasts or humans, and their various parts, such as excretions, flesh, bones, fat, urine, blood, etc.

X. The defining term of Chemistry is decomposition or anatomy In this context, "anatomy" refers to the chemical process of taking a substance apart into its basic elements., which is nothing other than a separation of compound bodies into their primary principles; these are then water, earth, spirit, salt, acid, oil, etc.

XI. The water, otherwise called phlegm original: plegma; the tasteless, watery byproduct of distillation., is the watery moisture that is tasteless and not very volatile, unless it is driven by a moderate fire.

XII. The earth is a thick and dry body, which after distillation is commonly called a dead head original: caput mortuum. or condemned earth original: Terra damnata; the useless residue left in a flask after all the spirits and oils have been boiled away.; it is from this that bodies derive most of their solidity.

XIII. The spirit is called Mercury by the Chemists because of its resemblance to fine volatility, being very penetrating and mobile, such as alcohol of wine original: alcoholvini., or the spirits of wormwood, grain, roses, etc. original: spiritus absinthii, frumenti, rosarum., being made from fermented and processed things. One must then call everything "spirit" that is highly volatile, for its identification consists in that quality.

XIV. The salt is a solid substance, yet one that easily melts in moisture. It is of two kinds: namely fixed and volatile original: fixum and volatile.; both are named thus in relation to fire. For the fixed salt can constantly withstand the second, third, and fourth degrees of fire Early chemists used four "degrees" of heat, ranging from the warmth of a brooding hen to the intense heat of a furnace.