CHYMIATRIC PRACTICE

(Chemical Medicine)

...separated by a weak separator original: "tritorium," a vessel or tool for separating liquids of different densities: Digest the Spirit with the oil for some time in a digestion fire; afterwards, pour on half a portion of Spirit of Wine and distill (repeatedly). Along with the Spirit of Wine, the Spirit of Soot original: "sp. fuliginis" comes forth, and at the same time, a most highly rectified oil. A specific for cancer. It has an odor like Camphor. Calcine the "dead head" The "caput mortuum" or useless residue left in the flask after distillation and from it extract the Salt in the usual manner; reserve this as a most excellent curative for ulcerated cancer. This Salt is extracted with vinegar, and in a cold, damp place, it is dissolved back into a liquid; with this, cancerous ulcers are anointed once or twice, and the poisonousness is visibly extracted like a vapor. Finally, however, the aforementioned oil, frequently applied by gentle sprinkling, induces a crust like a small skin; when this falls off spontaneously in the space of 5 or 6 days, it indicates that the ulcer is consolidated and healed.

The dose of the spirit is from 6 grains to half a scruple symbol: ℈ß; of the Oil, from 2 to 3 drops. They are administered in wine or another suitable vehicle. Three drops of it given in vinegar to one in the "agony of death" the final struggle before passing wonderfully revive him by refreshing his spirits. From this, one may also observe this testing original Greek: δοκιμασίαν of imminent death: if a more copious sweat breaks out after the oil is given, it is an indubitable sign of health and recovery; if otherwise, it is a sign of death. But if the soot of larch or even oak is mixed with our common local soot, and the corrected oil is elicited from it in the usual way, it will be very effective in cases of the "falling sickness" epilepsy and contractions, and it dispels fainting and swooning original: "syncopen & leipothymias", and it vehemently excites and corroborates the animal spirits.

Essence of Pearls.

XV. Essence of Pearls. Take a quantity of salt of pearls made via vinegar as desired; pour on the most highly rectified Spirit of Wine to the height of 3 fingers, and in a vessel hermetically sealed, place it to digest in warm ashes for 8 or 10 days. During that time, the pearls release their essence to the surface of the Spirit of Wine like a thick oil. Separate this oil by inclination carefully pouring off the top layer along with the Spirit of Wine from the sediment, and keep it in a well-closed vessel. Pour fresh Spirit of Wine onto the remaining oil and digest as before, collecting the essence and joining it with the previous portion as many times as seems fit. Put all the collected essence into a cucurbit a gourd-shaped distilling flask and, with a very gentle fire, draw off the Spirit of Wine until the essence remains at the bottom like an oil. It is given in doses of 6 drops in an opiate confection or any decoction. This essence can be most usefully administered with the following mixture:

Take melissa seeds, 1 dram symbol: ʒ j,
milk, half a dram symbol: ʒ ß,
fennel water, 10 ounces symbol: ℥ x,
rose water, 3 ounces symbol: ℥ iij,

Make an emulsion, of which 4 ounces and 3 drams are taken with 2 drams of the Essence of Pearls. Mix and let 3 or more spoonfuls be given (one spoonful morning and evening, or at any time of urgent necessity). But if the said operation seems too laborious to anyone, let him express the juice from the discarded peels of citrons and keep it in a water bath A "Mariae Balneum" or double-boiler for several days so that it may be purified. Then, pour the said juice to the height of 4 fingers over an ounce of crushed pearls washed in white wine in a matrass a long-necked glass flask; place it in warm ashes for 8 hours. You will see the pearls dissolve and be converted, as it were, into a buttery liquor. Pour onto this distilled May dew dew collected in May was believed to have special alchemical properties or Melissa water, so that the solution of pearls may be dissolved in it; pour off the water, and again pour on a sufficient quantity of the said juice, digest, and remove what is dissolved by pouring on water. Repeat this labor until they are almost entirely dissolved, leaving behind very little dregs. Then join all the liquids together and allow the water and juice to exhale in the ashes with a slow fire. You will find an impalpable powder, resolvable in any liquid. The use of this is from 6 grains to half a scruple in May dew water distilled with manna, or in cinnamon water with distilled rose or bugloss water, or in a preserve of orange peel or citron flowers.

Liquor of Hyacinth.

XVI. Liquor of Hyacinth. Hyacinth here refers to the gemstone, likely zircon or yellow garnet, rather than the flower Take a quantity of hyacinth powder as desired; mix it with an equal weight of "live sulfur" native, unrefined sulfur (still joined to the mineral, not reduced into rolls); mix in a strong crucible covered with a lid, but not luted sealed with clay. Calcine it first with a slow circular fire, then a stronger one, and finally a very strong fire, until all the sulfur exhales and the powder, when extracted from the fire, no longer breathes a sulfurous odor. Then let it be washed diligently with common water and mixed with a portion of prepared water of vi-

triol or "salt prunella" potassium nitrate prepared with sulfur, and let it be calcined in a circular fire until it turns into a mass with the saltpeter, becoming red like metal in the fire. Then it is cast into hot water so that the vitriol may be dissolved, leaving the Hyacinth powder at the bottom. Wash it with hot water until it no longer tastes of vitriol; afterwards let it be dried, and the following vinegar poured over it. Take 6 pounds of Vinegar, 1 pound of ashes of the herb Kali Saltwort, used for its alkaline properties. (If the herb Kali is lacking, let a "Turpentine Vinegar" be made from vinegar and turpentine distilled together through a retort, the oil and spirit being separated from the water). Let the vinegar be poured gradually into the retort over the ashes, lest it effervesce. Then let it be distilled in the ashes and let a cohobation The process of pouring a distilled liquid back onto its residue and re-distilling it to increase potency be made. The vinegar becomes sweet through three turns, and not so biting, yet of great power in dissolving all precious stones. Therefore, pour this vinegar over the powder, as said, to the height of 2 or 3 fingers; place it in warm ashes for 2 days to dissolve, always agitating the matter. After 2 days, decant the tincture, pour on more vinegar, and collect the tincture until the Hyacinths are dissolved, leaving very little dregs at the bottom. Filter the whole solution and evaporate it to dryness; there will remain the Salt of Hyacinth, to be dissolved in simple water and coagulated repeatedly until all taste of the vinegar is consumed. Or, sprinkle into the solution a few drops of "oil of tartar made by descent" potassium carbonate liquefied by absorbing moisture from the air; the Salt is precipitated to the bottom, which is freed from all acrimony by pouring on a quantity of simple water. Its use is the same as the solution of Pearls.

VINEGAR OF TURPENTINE

Take 4 pounds of Turpentine; pour on 3 pounds of vinegar; distill in sand until a red oil ascends. Then change the receiver, separate the oil of turpentine from the vinegar by a separator, and rectify the vinegar alone over Ginger.

Extract of Kermes.

XVII. Extract of Alkermes. Kermes are scale insects used to produce a red dye and a famous heart tonic Let a quantity of Kermes grains be crushed, and after pouring on rose water made slightly acidic with a few drops of Spirit of Vitriol or Sulfur to the height of 4 fingers, let them be digested in a warm place for 4 days. Let the tinted water be removed, and by pouring on more, let the tincture be extracted until the water is no longer tinted. Distill the tincture in a water bath or in ashes. The same Extract can be made like other Extracts with Spirit of Wine. Or, express the juice from the mature grains with a press; digest it for 4 days in a water bath until it turns clear, with the dregs settling at the bottom. Decant the clear juice, filter it, and let it be thickened in a cucurbit and distilled via a water bath. Keep the distilled water and the juice separately. For these two can be joined in time of necessity to make a liquor. The same purified juice can be kept for use if it is cooked with half a part of sugar candy to the consistency of a syrup over a slow ash fire in a water bath. Its use is from 1 scruple to 2 scruples.

POTABLE GOLD

Angelic Potable Gold.

XVIII. By Francis Anthony. First, let fine gold be dissolved in Aqua Regia "Royal Water," a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids capable of dissolving gold according to the art. (Aqua Regia is made from 1 pound of Aqua Fortis and 4 ounces of ammonium salt distilled together through a retort in sand). Pour the clear solution into a capacious glass with a wide neck, and drop by drop pour in Oil of Tartar made by descent, until the Aqua Regia becomes clear and white. If this sign appears, it is certain that all the "calx" the gold precipitate has descended to the bottom. Allow it to rest overnight, and in the morning, after removing the liquid, wash the calx 4 or 5 times with common water and dry it with a very gentle fire.

Note Well: Beware lest the heat be excessive; for as soon as the calx feels the heat of the fire, it immediately catches flame and vanishes into the air Hartmann is warning about Fulminating Gold, which is highly explosive when dry and heated. Therefore, it is safer to dry it in a warm room or simply in the air, agitating it diligently with a wooden spatula. To the calx add half a part of powdered sulfur; mix them together and allow the sulfur to burn off in a crucible over an open fire, using a slow fire at the beginning and a very strong one at the end for 1 hour, so that the calx may be "reverberated" Exposed to intense, reflected heat and become extremely fine. Keep this in a very well-closed vial for use.