New Philosophical Furnaces

...are distilled, and most perfectly refined: by the benefit of which many excellent medicines can be prepared for removing the most serious and otherwise incurable diseases and conditions.

In the third part, a certain new invention, hitherto unknown, will be taught for distilling ardent spiritsHigh-proof alcoholic spirits, such as brandy or ethanol, which were valued for their medicinal and solvent properties., such as those from wine, grain, fruits, flowers, herbs, and roots; as well as the waters of vegetables and animals, and indeed in great abundance, in a short space of time, and without great expense. It also teaches the brewing of beeroriginal: "cervisiam", meadoriginal: "hydromel", wine, and other things which are otherwise made in large copper or iron vessels; [this is done] by the benefit of wooden vessels, with the aid of some small copper or iron instrument weighing 2 or 3 pounds, surely by an easy way without [the usual large] furnaces. This newly discovered art also teaches various other chemical labors, such as putrefactionsThe controlled decomposition of organic matter, often used as a first step to release its "essences.", digestionsGentle heating over a long period to promote chemical reactions., circulationsA process where a substance is distilled and the vapor is continuously condensed and returned to the original flask., extractionsUsing a solvent to pull out the medicinal or "virtuous" parts of a material., abstractionsThe removal of a solvent, typically by evaporation or distillation., cohobationsThe repeated distillation of a liquid back onto its solid residue to increase its potency., fixationsThe process of making a volatile substance stable so it can withstand high heat without evaporating., etc. And this invention is quite necessary and useful for beginners in this art, for they do not require so many furnaces, nor so many copper, iron, tin, earthen, and glass vessels in the preparation of ardent spirits, vegetable waters, extracts, and other medicines; for they are taught here how all the aforesaid labors may be completed with only the aid of some small copper or iron instrument in wooden vessels, just as well indeed as through alembicsoriginal: "vesicas" - literally "bladders," referring here to the copper boilers or bodies of a still. and other very large copper vessels: by which means expenses are spared, etc.

In the fourth part, another hitherto unknown furnace will be taught, in which all chemical labors are very easily performed: most useful for examining [the properties] of minerals...