Manly P. Hall Collection, Box 3

You will be able to draw forth much, and this is that Mercury which has provided us with the most welcome support in all our experiments. And, oh common physicians, if you knew this, how easy it would be for you to deal with all types of diseases, and how much you could resolve and disperse through perspiration with this volatile sal ammoniac of ours. —

2 Note: However, if you do not have a good worker whom you can trust, and who cannot capture our "eagle," original: "nostram aquilam" you would labor in vain and waste so much time. Therefore, I want to share with you a very brief method that will indeed do much in our work, though never as much as our eagle and this method.

Take three pounds of prepared salt and one pound of sal ammoniac. Mix this all together well by grinding, pour it into the glass vessel called a cucurbit, cucurbita: a glass vessel used in distillation and place it on the furnace. Leave it open so that the humidity may escape, and apply enough fire to make the glass hot. Leave it to stand, testing it with a knife as before with the Mercury, and when the humidity has escaped, close the glass as above. Give it a good fire for a day and a night, then let it cool in the morning. Break the glass, and you will find the sal ammoniac lying on top, pure and light as a sponge. This is called "air" by the philosophers. Philosophis: here referring to alchemists Remove this, grind the remainder, pour it into the glass again, and do as before. Continue this until nothing remains in the salt. You should note that if the salt is "scatterable," spargibilis: able to be dispersed or dry/powdery then you know that nothing is left in the salt. If it remains in a heap, it is still there; grind it as before, and burn it until it all comes out of the salt. Throw away the salt and save the sal ammoniac. Thus, you will also have our eagle, though not as beautiful or as potent as our first eagle, which is the most perfect eagle of all the philosophers. —