Manly P. Hall Collection, Box 10

Method of Deflegmating this Subtle Spirit

Take one pound of the zinc lime An oxide of zinc. prepared as above, and four pounds of the subtle spirit reserved above. The lime must be very dry and must not have been exposed to the air, for if it contains even a little phlegm, the operation will not succeed. Put everything into a long-necked matrass A glass laboratory vessel with a rounded body and long neck., and lute Seal with a clay or paste-like substance. onto it a suitable alembic head The upper part of a still where vapors condense.. Leave the whole without fire for an hour, shaking it from time to time, then place your matrass in a very gentle water bath, yet strong enough to make the spirit rise, devoid of its phlegm, which will attach itself to the said flowers. Distill at this degree as long as you see that there is spirit. It is better that a little spirit remains with the phlegm than that the phlegm passes mixed with the spirit. If the first operation is not sufficient to deflegmate it well, you may repeat it up to three times over new, well-prepared, and dry zinc lime, as above; then you will have a very subtle, penetrating, and well-deflegmated spirit.

To do this operation even better, one uses the salt of zinc, for all alkali salts of any body concentrate spirits better and separate the phlegm more easily than a foreign alkali. However, the lime of zinc has the virtue of concentrating and deflegmating all spirits, both alkaline and acidic, as we shall see hereafter.