Complete Medico-Chemical Works

In this manner, the prepared water is distilled from honey using the gentle heat of ashes or a Water Bath A Balneum Mariae, used for gradual heating.. The first water to emerge is tasteless (that which follows is as sharp as vinegar); mix this with an equal portion of rectified spirit of wine High-proof alcohol. and pour it into a vial over the flowers In alchemy, "flowers" refers to the powdery sublimate of a mineral, in this case, Antimony. to the height of four fingers. Let the flowers circulate in this manner in the Sun, or another warm place, for a month. Afterward, discard the liquid medium original: "menstruo", dry the flowers with gentle heat, and preserve them. You will see that the violence of the flowers of antimony, which arose from their raw state, has been ripened and removed through this cooking and the presence of the noble solvent; thus, they move the bowels original: "sedes movere" without any vomiting. The Dose is from 5 to 6 or 7 grains.

Noble Flowers of Antimony that purge excellently through the bowels without griping.

The following section was originally in German.
First, one makes an Aqua Regia Royal Water; a powerful acid capable of dissolving gold and other minerals in the following manner: Take 4 pounds each of yellow calcined vitriol Iron or copper sulfate heated until it turns yellow-white and common salt. Add two or three times as much Potter's clay, and distill it from a coated stone retort over an open fire; thus you obtain a greenish water. In this water, dissolve as many white Flowers of Antimony as can be dissolved or as you please, noting that there must be at least twice as much water (the Aqua Regia) as there is powder. Let it digest and dissolve for three days. Once dissolved, pour everything, thick and thin, into a glass retort, place it in sand or ashes, and distill it—noting well—gently at first, until the moisture has mostly passed over; this should be caught in a separate vessel. As soon as thick, bright, shining drops begin to fall and the previous liquid becomes whitish, then place another receiver in front, and distill whatever will pass over from the dissolved flowers. The previous water can be poured back onto the remaining flowers to be digested, dissolved, and distilled again. This Oil will coagulate into Crystals; if they are distilled once more in a small retort, the Oil will become clearer and more beautiful. Of this Oil, take as much as you like and pour it drop by drop into an equal amount of pure oil original: "ol. per delig." likely oleum per deliquium, a substance liquefied by absorbing moisture from the air. Let these stand together for two or three days, then wash the Flowers, which will be gentle and delicate. The Dose for adults is from 6, 7, to 10 and 12 grains.

However, if the Oil were poured into distilled rainwater, beautiful white flowers would fall to the bottom, which purge usefully both "upwards and downwards" Inducing both vomiting and bowel movements..

Preparation of Mercury with the Sun The "Sun" or Sol is the alchemical name for Gold..

XIII. Mercury with gold. Take 1 part fine Gold and 6 parts living Mercury; make an amalgam according to the art. Allow the Mercury to fly away from the amalgam over a slow charcoal fire in a crucible; the Calx A powdery metal oxide produced by heating of Gold will remain at the bottom. Amalgamate this Calx again with another 6 parts of Mercury, stirring it excellently so that all the Calx is dissolved into the Mercury and appears as one homogenous body. Place this amalgam in a retort and pour Aqua Fortis Nitric acid over it to a depth of 3 fingers. Place the retort in the ashes to digest with a moderate fire. The following day, using a stronger fire, collect the Aqua Fortis in the receiver attached to the retort, and increase the fire toward the end so that the bottom of the retort glows red-hot, and all the corrosive spirits of the Aqua Fortis are distilled. Once the vessels have cooled, remove the material, grind it, return it to the retort, and pour the previously distilled Aqua Fortis back over it. Distill it again in a sand bath with a strong fire as before, so the retort glows red at the bottom. When the vessels have cooled, remove the deep red material contained in the retort, discarding anything that may have sublimated to the sides of the glass. From this, take a square iron plate and hold it in the fire until it glows. While it is red-hot, sprinkle the Mercurial powder upon it so it is thoroughly dried and any remaining volatile parts evaporate; when the iron begins to cool, remove the material and keep it in a closed vessel for use. It purges through the bowels gently without any vomiting—unless the region of the upper belly or stomach is filled with miserable impurities—moving the bowels. Dose: from 3 to 9 grains with a little Turpentine or Extract of Colocynth A bitter, powerful laxative fruit., or in their absence, with "Coch. min." pills Common laxative pills of the era containing aloes and colocynth. or

others. It is a Supreme Secret original: "Summum Arcanum" for dropsy Edema or fluid retention., the French Disease Syphilis., and all skin conditions and "fluxes" uncontrolled discharges of bodily fluids, and where the body overflows with phlegmatic humors.

Caution in the administration of Mercurials.

NB. In the administration of Mercury, however prepared, it must be noted: 1. That the most convenient form for administration is pills, so that the Mercury does not cause harm by lingering too long in the throat and inducing excessive salivation Ptyalism; a common side effect of mercury poisoning or causing the tonsils to swell, as it draws thinner humors from all sides toward the palate due to a certain natural affinity.

2. When incorporating Mercury, it is always advised to add one or two drops of Oil of Sulphur, because this restrains its malignancy and its volatility (as it tends to rise), fixing it in place and correcting the symptoms it might otherwise cause.

3. At the latest, a broth should be given 2 hours after taking the Mercury, and food half an hour after that, so that it does not remain in the stomach too long.

4. It should not be given frequently to bilious Those with a "hot" or "bitter" temperament according to humor theory. patients, because by drawing out the watery humors, it may harm them by removing the "reign" or control of the bile.

5. It should be given with Turpentine or the following Extract of Colocynth: Take 1/2 pound of Colocynth—not fresh, but several years old—without the inner rinds or seeds; 4 ounces of pure Scammony A harsh purgative resin.. Let the sliced ingredients be extracted with the spirit of wine used previously, or unrectified spirit. Discarding the dregs, place the tinted liquid in a gourd-shaped vessel and reduce it in a Water Bath until it reaches the consistency of honey or pills.

Simple Bezoar.

I. Simple mineral Bezoardic. Dose: 6 to 12 grains or more, in a suitable vehicle, such as Blessed Thistle water, Cinnamon water, or Theriac A famous ancient "universal" cure-all paste.. See the notes on Croll Oswald Croll, a prominent alchemical physician..

Solar Bezoar. Lunar Bezoar.

II. Solar mineral Bezoardic: Dose is the same.
III. Lunar Bezoardic, which is made in this way: Silver The "Moon" or Luna. is dissolved in Aqua Fortis and digested until the solution becomes greenish; draw off the Aqua Fortis (through an alembic to the thickness of honey) and extract a green tincture from the Silver using spirit of wine. Repeat this extraction until it is no longer tinted. In turn, having removed the spirit of wine, join the remaining tincture in a ratio of 1 to 8 with Butter Butter of Antimony, a thick, oily liquid. (Butter of Antimony dissolved in spirit of vitriol), and by distilling to dryness according to the art, fix it two or three times in the same way the common Bezoardic is fixed. Simple mineral Bezoardic. Dose is the same.

Diaphoretic Antimony.

IV. Diaphoretic Antimony, or fixed white flowers of antimony. The Dose is from 15 grains to 1 scruple 20 grains., and sometimes even more, given with conserve of Roses or a suitable water with a bit of old Theriac; it excellently drives out foul humors through sweat.

Panacea or Fixed Sulphur of Antimony.

V. Panacea A "cure-all" medicine or fixed sulphur of antimony is made in this way: From the Cinnabar of Antimony Mercury sulfide found in antimony ore. remaining after the Butter of Antimony has been distilled and collected in the neck of the retort, first elicit the red sulphur in this manner: Make a very strong lye from potash original: "cineribus clavellatis" or quicklime, as is the custom. With this liquid, thoroughly purified and passed through a filter, let the powdered cinnabar of antimony boil for 3 or 4 hours in an iron pot. The lye is turned red (because of the sulphur), but the "living silver" Quick-silver or Mercury. flows running at the bottom. The tinted lye is separated by pouring it off and, while still hot, is strained through blotting paper and set aside for several hours; thus the sulphur of antimony will seek the bottom in the form of a red powder, which, once separated from the lye, must then be sweetened Washed until the caustic taste is gone. with common water and afterward dried with gentle heat. Of this sulphur and the Regulus of Antimony The metallic form of antimony., take 1 ounce of each; 3 ounces of Oil of Sulphur made by the Bell A method of catching sulfur fumes under a glass bell. or Oil of Vitriol. Digest for several nights and days in a glass retort in a warm place, then distill from a sand bath three times (at minimum, and up to five times), pouring the liquid back each time. On the last time, urge the fire to the "fourth degree" The highest intensity of heat. for 12 hours, and there will be a poison-killer original: "toxum," likely referring to the "fixed" medicinal result remaining fixed in the fire. Remove this and wash it with rose water. Of this, take 1/2 ounce; and 2 drachms of the Salt or Magistery of Coral A preparation of coral dissolved in acid and precipitated.. Mix exactly and make a powder. Pa-