Chemical Beginner

[moisture], and is placed in its own vessel to rot original: "putrefcendum"; in alchemy, putrefaction is the process of breaking down a substance through moisture and gentle heat, often viewed as a necessary stage of "death" before a substance can be purified or "reborn.". Fresh herbs, crushed and moist with their own juice, from which the essence is to be drawn by distillation, are macerated for three days. Dry herbs, sprinkled with wine, for seven days; seeds and spices for half a month; roots for a month, if indeed they are dry; Minerals for a philosophical month original: "mensem Philosophicum"; unlike a calendar month, the "philosophical month" in alchemical texts traditionally refers to a period of 40 days, symbolizing a complete cycle of transformation., which is forty days, or even longer according to the firmness and nature of the solvent menstruum|A liquid used to dissolve or extract the essential properties of a solid substance.. It is not that a fixed number of days can always be assigned to these operations, since the materials, the practitioner, and the equipment are variable. Thus, it is left to the diligence and experience of the practitioner.

Digestion

It is a spagyric The term "spagyric" (from the Greek words for "to separate" and "to gather") refers to alchemical pharmacy, specifically the process of extracting the virtues of plants or minerals and recombining them into a more potent form. stage similar to the stomach original: "ventriculo"; Beguin uses the analogy of the human stomach to explain how the alchemist’s vessel uses heat to break down and "digest" raw matter., by which stage the material is cooked more thoroughly so that the separation of the pure from the impure can be performed. For to digest is to cook in the manner of the natural digestion of food in the stomach, using a heat appropriate to each thing, and to make it ready to exert its power. For digestion [breaks down] thick...