Manly P. Hall Collection, Box 3

rises through sublimation, mix it with the aforementioned spirit as before, and with the vessel closed, keep all these. Then pour the spirit over the earth again, to three fingers high, and attach the seal as before, let it putrefy, and finally distill through ashes until nothing distills. Then increase the fire as much as possible so that the earth itself is calcined; in this third operation, it is converted into an ash-colored substance. Soon after the vessel is cooled and the receiver with the remaining animated spirit is removed, keep it. But place the earth into an earthenware or vinegar-proof vessel that can withstand fire, which you should seal with a lid, supplying it with a vehement fire from wood. Continue this for two days. Through that space of time, you will calcine the earth. Then, after the vessel is cooled, extract the earth, which will be nearly white and of a shiny color. Over this, pour as much of its phlegm as will reach four fingers high, and incinerate it. Let it boil for four hours, and afterward, carefully decant the liquid into some vessel and save it. Dry the remaining earth, pour more phlegm over it as before, make it boil as before, decant as before, and dry the earth as before. Repeat this master-work until the entire earth is dissolved, or its entire part is imprinted into that phlegm, which will perhaps happen by the third or fourth dissolution. If anything remains undissolved, throw it away, for it is "killed" (dead/inert) earth. Filter whatever has passed with the phlegm, then make it pass through a cloth again. Once this is done, freeze the dissolution in the fire of ashes, very slowly, in a glass urinal, under which is placed an alembic with a receiver. Once frozen, dissolve it again with the water recently distilled, pass it through a filter, then through a cloth as above. Repeat this master-work until no earthiness remains in the filter and cloth. Then keep our sal ammoniac, our animal physical sulfur, and our fixed animal mercury. Place a little bit of it on a plate; if it flows like wax without smoke, it is a sign that you have fixed, perfectly purified quicksilver, with which many [things can be done].