OPERIS MINERALIS

returns into metal, and you convert it again into ashes by repeating this labor until, with all combustible Sulfur burned away, the thing refuses to go away into ashes by calcination heating to powder, it is melted and in the test original: "im abtreiben"; cupellation easily gives its Gold and Silver. For that which is mixed with lead and moves a quarrel in strong fire, rising upward and going away into ashes, must be imputed to combustible Sulfur, by which it also renders Gold, Silver, Copper, and Iron brittle like glass when fused. But by roasting, incineration, cementation, or any other way spoiled of that Sulfur, it no longer renders them brittle (which is a matter full of difficulty), but is fused with them and is separated original: "läst sich sengern"; is separated/refined most easily with Venus, who, with smooth and deceitful words, knows how to reconcile both old men, Saturn and Jupiter, so that they tolerate each other in the fire. The same would also be afforded by Gold and Silver, but because those, being precious in themselves, easily flow out of the crucible and the work can perish, it is better not to immerse and lose those, purified with much labor, into the impure again, but to employ Copper, which also exhibits its own hidden Gold and Silver from itself.

There are also other modes of purging Tin from its superfluous Sulfur, namely, nitrous fire. If filed Tin mixed with Saltpeter, Sulfur, and iron dross is ignited, a part of the Tin is elevated into flowers, and a part remains, to be reduced by strong fire and administered in the aforementioned way until the whole substantiality has gone into flowers and ashes, the metallic form and nature being most plainly destroyed. Afterward, the flowers are collected from the receptacles, and the ashes