Chemical Investigation of the Difference Between Philosophical and Mineral Antimony, as well as Philosophical and Common Mercury

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without the addition of another thing that is not of its nature, extracted the true white [substance] and Mercurius Philosophorum philosophers' mercury, which radically dissolves gold and all metals as well as minerals, and can never again be separated from them by the force of fire or water. The sophists will never, in eternity, bring about the Mercurius Philosophorum, which is inseparably mixed with all metals by their smallest parts, from common mineral antimony and common mercury, whether by trituration or in any other way. They may indeed obtain a mass by melting together some metals—iron, copper, and silver—with common antimony, which is brittle and can easily be pulverized.