Complete Medico-Chemical Works

Spirit of urine.

Now let the Spirit of Urine be made: Take the urine of a healthy man who drinks wine, as much as you wish; digest it moderately in a well-closed gourd cucurbita; a rounded distillation vessel in horse dung or another warm place for 40 days. When the time of putrefaction is finished, let the urine be distilled from a sand bath through an alembic, using a sufficiently large receiver, until all the moisture has been distilled. Let the distillate be rectified purified by redistillation three times by cohobation pouring the liquid back over the solid residue from the "dead head" caput mortuum; the useless solid remains, so that the spirits may afterwards be properly raised. Therefore, in a vial with a longer neck with its alembic and receiver, the joints being well closed on all sides, let the distillation be established in the sand, and the spirit will be raised like a crystal into the alembic with no accompanying watery moisture. This distillation is to be continued until all the spirits have ascended. That which came forth by sublimation is dissolved with distilled rainwater and distilled from a vial as before; this is repeated six times, always taking new rainwater. Hence, the crystals are stored in a hermetically sealed vial for 15 days and digested in the gentle heat of a water bath original: "B." for Balneum Mariae until they pass into a most clear liquor. To this liquor is added an equal weight of Spirit of Wine alcohol made from good wine and as highly rectified as possible; let them be digested together in the water bath for 12 days and united.

Now take the Lime of the Sun original: "Calcem Solis"; calcined gold and pour upon it the solvent menstruum made from the Spirit of Wine and Spirit of Urine, so that it stands 3 finger-breadths above; digest in gentle heat until it turns red like blood. The tincture, decanted and frequently collected, is digested in the water bath for several days (e.g., 8, 10, or 12). From here, by the slowest heat, the dissolving spirit is drawn off, to be cohobated once more. From this remains a salt at the bottom of the gourd in the form of a very red oil, spreading a sweet odor from itself, resolvable in any liquor. Therefore, this oil can be a substitute for the true "Oil of the Sun." If you distill this same solution not in a water bath but in sand from a retort, after the first part of the solvent, the tincture of the Sun passes through the alembic with the remaining part of it, red like blood, leaving a black, dry, spongy, light earth at the bottom of the vessel. The solvent itself, which came forth in the tincture of the Sun, is to be separated by a lukewarm water bath, and the Oil of the Sun remaining at the bottom can be preserved alone. This is that Potable Gold original: "aurum potabile" which is held in England by Francis Anthony, a London physician: from where it has often been brought into Germany and other places.

Four to six or eight grains of this, exhibited in any manner, wonderfully refresh the strengths and act against any disease, mostly by evacuating through sweat, although sometimes they expel the noxious matter through individual emunctories the body's natural waste-clearing organs.

ANOTHER METHOD.

Let gold leaf be dissolved in the spirit, draw off the solvent, and the lime will remain at the bottom, upon which another solvent made of highly rectified Spirit of Wine and the Salt of Urine should be poured (let this solvent stand in gentle heat for 15 days so that it may be united). The gold is thus dissolved and can be distilled together with the solvent through an alembic in a sand bath; once the distillation is done, let the solvent be separated by the gentle heat of a water bath, with the Tincture of the Sun remaining at the bottom.

The Consummate.

XIX. The Consummate. Take a capon or a partridge alone, or with some part of veal; cut it into the smallest pieces and crush the bones in a mortar. Put them in a suitable glass or tin vial with a little cinnamon and, if you like, saffron. Close the vial exactly and place it in a basin full of boiling water; continue the fire so that the water boils for 3 hours. From this, take out the meat and squeeze out the liquor, which is of excellent flavor and odor, and it congeals immediately; the meat, however, will be hard and tasteless. One spoonful of the liquor is administered either by itself or with another broth.

ANODYNES Medicines to relieve pain

I. General Opiate Laudanum (see the notes on Croll Oswald Croll, alchemist and the Opiologia concerning opiate laudanum), prepared both with opium and without the same—that is, prepared with the anodyne sulfur of vitriol, corrected and fixed.

II. Laudanum for Epileptics. See below under "Epilepsy."

III. Laudanum for Suffocations. The dose of all of these is from 2, 3, or 4 grains at most. See below under "Suffocation of the Womb" a historical term for hysteria or uterine distress.

(ANODYNE SULFUR OF VITRIOL.

Take 2 parts of Spirit of Turpentine and 1 part of rectified Oil of Vitriol sulfuric acid. Mix in a long glass and stir with a wooden stick; a great effervescence will occur. When it ceases, pour on cold water, stir with the stick, and when it has precipitated, decant it. Pour Spirit of Wine on the remaining matter and extract a tincture. Distill this tincture again to the consistency of pills, which save for use. It induces sleep and takes away pain. The dose is 2 grains with 1 grain of prepared opium. For when minerals enter into marriage with vegetables, they operate more happily.)

Laudanum without opium.

LAUDANUM WITHOUT OPIUM.

Take 1 part of the purest iron filings original: "Limaturæ Martis"; Mars is the alchemical symbol for iron without any dust, and 2 parts of Hungarian Vitriol likely copper or iron sulfate. Grind and mix everything; afterwards without opium in a gourd, pour vinegar over it so it stands half a finger-breadth above. Cook and coagulate it with a gentle sand fire until dry; when this is done, urge the fire so that everything becomes somewhat red. When the vessels have cooled, take out the matter, grind it, and pour on vinegar to a depth of 3 or 4 fingers. Digest until the vinegar is tinted, which happens within 3 days or thereabouts. Decant the tinted vinegar without disturbing the dregs, and by pouring on more, collect the tincture until it is no longer colored. Into the filtered tinted vinegar, sprinkle some drops of oil of tartar made by deliquescence potassium carbonate liquid, and the Narcotic Sulfur will seek the bottom; wash this frequently with common water until the water is no longer infected by the sharpness or taste of the vitriol. Unless this is done, it will cause nausea or even vomiting because of the presence of the salt of vitriol. Now take 1 drachm each of red and yellow sandalwood powder; 3 drachms each of powder of mace, galangal, pepper, and cardamom. Let an extract be made according to the art original: "F. l. a." for fiat lege artis with Spirit of Wine. Also extract 1 drachm of Egyptian Mummy a resinous substance taken from mummies, or a substitute, used in pharmacy with chicory water. Join the carefully collected and filtered tinctures with 2 drachms of the narcotic sulfur. Digest everything together in a closed vessel for 15 days in gentle heat; afterwards, draw off the solvent until it reaches the consistency of honey. From here, add half a drachm of Extract of Saffron and 1 drachm of salt or Magistery of Pearls. Let the mass be stored for use.

It is a most excellent anodyne, suited for allaying all pains and inducing sleep, especially when taken into the body from 6 to 10 grains with some conserve or liquor, or in the form of pills.

Since not infrequently the vehemence of pain—and of wakefulness and restlessness, the companions of the individual—is so great that the very strengths are dissolved, and the diseases themselves cannot be met in any way unless the symptoms are removed; indeed, once these symptoms are removed, the disease itself is often taken away with light care. Great effort must be made so that sleep, which is the friend of nature, may be induced. It is the highest secret in medicine, by the introduction of which enormous pain and torments are mostly put to sleep, and often while the disease rests with the body, the causes of the pains are simultaneously extirpated. It is necessary, therefore, that the physician be equipped with some "essential Anodyne" as if with an Attalic treasure a proverb for a magnificent or royal legacy, so that at the "edge of the razor" in a moment of crisis he may flee at that time to that sacred anchor of health. As far as Anodynes are concerned, the Galenists traditional doctors following Galen's herbal theories prescribe Roman or Persian Philonium, Great Athanasia, Alexandrian Gold, fresh Theriac, Alkekengi troches, and Cynoglossum pills, all of which are often of great benefit if exhibited at the right time and in the right weight with suitable ingredients. Truly, the lauded Laudana of the Chemists are altogether more excellent than all these, which [contain] opium prin-