CHYMIATRIC PRACTICE

...very finely, and join or mix with them double the amount of calcined flints original: "filicum calcinatorum"; flints were burned and quenched to make them brittle and "pure" for alchemical use (which is done if they are extinguished in water several times while glowing hot). Mix diligently, and place them in an earthen subliming vessel or a low cucurbit a gourd-shaped glass vessel for sublimation in a sand bath, observing the heat levels. Finally, with a more vehement fire, the silver original: "luna"; the alchemical name for silver rises or is elevated, becoming entirely blue like a sapphire, while a thick black body remains at the bottom. Take this black material out carefully and grind it on marble, washing it several times with hot water; afterward, calcine it with a moderate fire (in an iron vessel) so that it turns into a very light lime (as with Antimony, always stirring with a spatula). From this lime, pour on 3 or 4 fingers' depth of the Spirit of Wine Spirit of Wine; highly distilled alcohol or ethanol previously distilled from red [vitriol], and extract the salt by digesting it for 3 or 4 days in a "Mary’s Bath" original: "B."; Balneum Mariae, a water bath for gentle heating in a very well-closed vessel. When the Spirit of Wine becomes somewhat milky, take this spirit away from the dregs and proceed by calcining and extracting until enough has been produced—that is, until no more salt comes forth and none remains hidden in the spirit. Collect all the extractions and draw off the Spirit of Wine by distilling in a water bath original: "MB." until only about a fourth part of the whole remains at the bottom. Place it in a cold spot, and the Salt of Silver original: "Sal lunae" will grow or granulate, translucent like crystal. Distill the remaining Spirit of Wine again down to a fourth part after collecting the first salt, and collect the granulated salt in turn; proceed thus until you have collected all the salt. Thoroughly dry all the collected salts and save them. Take 2 parts of the blue silver previously sublimated and elevated, and 1 part of the salt now collected; grind them together on marble and distill through a retort in a sand fire into an oil or a blue Lunar liquor (which may be slightly greenish); keep this collected liquor carefully. Its dose is 3 to 4 drops in a suitable vehicle a liquid used to deliver medicine, like water or wine for all afflictions of the head, especially in Phrenitis brain inflammation or delirium, Melancholy, Hypochondria, Paraphrenitis, Mania, and Apoplexy, Paralysis, Epilepsy, lost or weak memory, vertigo, Catarrh, etc.

This is a most certain and proven principal remedy in all afflictions of the brain; it has wonderfully restored those who were bound in chains for many years.

(Paracelsus, in his On the Diseases of the Insane, chapters 5 and 6, writes that the quintessence of antimony is the perfect cure for insanity. Also: Oil of Antimony preserves against all species of madness.)

The following Tinctures are of no less efficacy:

I. THE TINCTURE OF ANTIMONY OF THEOPHRASTUS:

Theophrastus refers to Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus

Take 2 lbs of striated antimony and 1 lb of calcined tartar ground on marble; melt them into a regulus Regulus; the metallic heart or button of a mineral found at the bottom of a crucible after smelting, which you should keep. Take calcined tartar and proceed as above; let this be repeated three or four times, then the regulus is purified. To this, take common salt, melted and ground; pour on hot pure distilled water so the salt dissolves, filter the solution, and coagulate it again into salt. Take equal parts of this with the Regulus and triple the weight of the Regulus in sal ammoniac $\ast$ iaci; Sal Ammoniac, a salt used to help minerals sublimate or "rise". Put them into a well-luted cucurbit with a distillation head attached. Place it in sand and increase the fire moderately; if you see no more moisture, persist, and yellow sal ammoniac will ascend to the head. Urge the fire until it glows darkly, and a transparent material, red like blood, will rise to the sides of the glass; keep this separately. Wash the sal ammoniac away from the yellow material. Pour the best Spirit of Wine over the dried red material to a height of 2 fingers; place it in digestion for four [days and nights] original: "$\ast$ & $♀$"; symbols for day and night or specific planetary timings, and something will be dissolved. Decant the water original: "$\nabla$" and repeat this until nothing more is dissolved. Then draw off the spirit from the solutions until dry. Pour hot water over the prepared material and proceed as with the Spirit of Wine until it is all dissolved; afterward, when drawn to dryness, a very red material remains, which is the tincture. Its use is most excellent in delirium, gout, leprosy, dropsy, plague, and fevers. It can also be infused in the previous Spirit of Wine, of which 2 drops can be given even to infants, and 1 grain to adults in a draft of wine.

II. ANOTHER TINCTURE OF ANTIMONY.

Take 2 lbs of Antimony and 3 lbs of crude Mercury original: "$☿$ri"; crush them, mix them, and cast them into a crucible in turns, melting them gently. While it still glows, cast it with an iron rod into a vessel filled with very hot water. Thus, an elegant sulfur will be extracted in such abundance that the water becomes thick; let this evaporate gently, and by pouring on more hot water, let the sulfur be completely washed out and separated in a filter. Pour the following vitriolized vinegar over this, which dissolves it radically; let it stand for eight days, then draw it off to dryness, and it will become a dark-colored sulfur. To this, pour spirit of honey and digest it, which will extract a most beautiful essence. Pour off or filter the spirit, repeating this until all is extracted. Draw off the solutions to the consistency of honey, over which pour Spirit of Wine, which instantly drinks up its "soul" original: "animam"; the essential color or essence like blood. Filter this and draw off half the spirit; there remains a heavy and pleasant tincture, the dose of which is 10 or 12 drops in any liquor. It is made thus:

Take 4 lbs of the purest dew and 8 lbs of Vinegar; digest for 24 hours. Afterward, distill with a moderate fire, and thus the most subtle spirits of vitriol and Mercury rise together. When you see white spirits coming out during the distillation, stop, for corrosive spirits are of no use. Dr. Agricola Likely referring to Johannes Agricola, a well-known chemical physician

III. In Insanity, Mania, and Melancholy, the "Flowers of the Donkey" original: "floribus Asini"; likely a metaphorical or specific preparation of donkey's blood, as noted below are praised as a specific (donkey's blood lasts only a year). In this age, in 1615, it restored a certain carpenter (taken from the veins behind the ears, into which fresh linen cloths, never used before, were soaked and dried). Note Well: the analogy (the donkey is a melancholic animal). Usage: From these linen strips, take a piece 2 fingers wide and one inch long, soak it in a draft of spring water until the color comes out. Give this water to be drunk by one suffering from such a disease for three full days, once in the morning, and provoke as much sweat as possible (which this blood draws out).

The perfect cure for Mania is as follows:
1. Let an emetic be given, especially "Blessed Water" original: "aq. Bened."; Aqua Benedicta, often an antimonial wine.
2. After the emetic, for several days, let the patient take a decoction of Pimpernel with purple flowers original: "Anagallidis flore purpureo" (without any additions). Wine must not be given in any way.
3. Prepare a lye such as this: Take cephalic head-healing herbs with flowers as much as you like; boil in spring water. A lye for the head. Then take laurel berries and roots of black hellebore, an equal amount of each; let them be crushed together coarsely and sewn into a long, quilted bag. Boil the bag for a little while in the aforementioned lye. Finally, for 9 continuous days, take 2 lbs of that lye each day, heat it, and with cloths moistened in it and lightly squeezed out, bathe the shaved head for a full hour. Afterward, apply that bag to the coronal suture the top of the skull (as long as it is warm) with a good bandage; the patient should lie in bed and, if possible, rest. Then, marvelous things are purged through all the emunctories natural waste-removal channels of the head, and the bowels flow somewhat at the same time. (From this, some conclude that the use of Hellebore among the Ancients was external rather than internal.) In this way, the soot original: "fuligines"; metabolic "smoke" or vapors believed to cloud the brain clinging to the skull and brain is wonderfully dissolved, which truly no other remedies can achieve.
4. Boxwood leaves original: "folia Buxi" are recommended in Mania (this is not yet confirmed, but I have heard it recommended). Two ounces of this, or nine leaves cut into very small pieces with a knife, are given in one or two spoonfuls of lavender water on an empty stomach, after the necessary preliminaries; if possible, provoke a sweat. Repeat once and again.
5. The last refuge in this disease is the opening of the skull with a trepan Trepan; a surgical drill used to remove a circular piece of bone from the skull to relieve pressure. See below at the end of the chapter on Phrenitis and Paraphrenitis.
(Let dried May-worms original: "Bruchi (Meyen vvürmer)"; likely cockchafer beetles or larvae be pulverized. If this powder is given to a person with rabies, they will be healed within a short time; for they will fall into a sleep, and when they wake, they will be better.)