The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber: containing, great variety of choice secrets in medicine and alchymy in the working of metallick mines, and the separation of metals. Also, various cheap and easie ways of making salt-petre, and improving of barren-land, and the fruits of the earth / Translated into English, and pub. for publick good by Christopher Packe.
- Glauber, Johann Rudolf, 1604-1670.
- Date:
- 1689
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber: containing, great variety of choice secrets in medicine and alchymy in the working of metallick mines, and the separation of metals. Also, various cheap and easie ways of making salt-petre, and improving of barren-land, and the fruits of the earth / Translated into English, and pub. for publick good by Christopher Packe. Source: Wellcome Collection.
736/820 (page 26)
![but however you fhall give me your hand, and Promife ' me, that you will conceal the Art in molt profound i filence. A. In'ill, bsre'’s my right and Credit upon it. B. Hearken then, with your utmoft diligence, and with an accurate intention, receive the things which I (hall fpeak unto you. A. I do^ and Idillen attentively. B. In thp firft place then, you are to know, that, if you would make any good thing out of the common Gold^ you-muft perfeflly call out of your mind that Opinion, which h^th hurried not a few into no fmall difficulties, imagining, that ( by the help of fome Men- firuumox other ) the Colour .oi the Gold is to be ex- tradled out of it, and that Silver is to be tinged, with that fame Golden Tinflure thus extraded, and that,: to the remaining white Gold, its Colour may be again reftored by the other lelTer Metals,as $ or Antitnonjf^o^-, per, or Iron: Such thoughts as thefe you muff clearly remove out of your mind, as being thofe which rob a many of their precious Time and Eftates. There are feveral ways, by which I know how to extraft the Colour from Gold, but tis needlefs to reckpn them up here by a tedious repeating of them, feeing they are rot any ways profitable, but rather caufelofs of Time and Goods. The main thing you arc to mind is this, VIZ. to meditate £ and enquire ^1 by an accurate and uncelTant ftudious Searchr,by what means you mayde- ftroy Gold, kill it, and fo compel it_ by Putrefadtion to produce to view its internal and invifible Colour, and f on the contrary) to introvert (and hide) its external and vilible Yellownefs. For Gold it felf is no o*ther thing fave a mere.Tindlure, to the acquiring of which, there needs not any other thing fave the true Key, which unlocks Gold, introverts it, and ren¬ ders the invifible Colour, vilible. Befides, neither ate thofe to behearkned unto, whqboaft of reducing Gpld into its itbree Principles, viz. Salt., Sulphury and Mer¬ cury and of freeing thofe three from all their impuri¬ ties, and then, of conjoyning them again, being thus Purged, and of Fixing them into an Univerfal Tin- dfure •, and fuch like moft impertinent trifling Pro- ceifes, as thefe. For they are mere idle Dreams, and can never be accomplifhed, but come to juft nothing, and clearly delude the Covetous Thirfters after Gain, by their vain dependence thereupon. Nor are there in Gold any of thofe Feces, which they prate of its being defiled with, neither doth it admit of being fe¬ vered and diflblved into thofe three Principles. But put Cafe it were polfible fo to be, what profit, I pray, could we hope fhould accrue to the faid Gojd by fuch a fruitlefs Labour, whereas we fee, that it is not in the leaft meafure bettered by fuch a Separation. Jt re¬ mains therefore for an undoubted Truth, that Gold nei¬ ther contains any Feces,nor admits it of a refolutipn info Three Principles, but that it rather requires to be Ra¬ dically diftblved by a due Putrefaftion, and to be fo opened or unlockt. And farther, the Labour of fuch Men is likewife vain, who Endeavour by the help of Saline, Cementations to extradt from Gold, its Soul : For though fuch Cemenrations may fometimes fuecced fo well, as that the Gold when taken out is plainly white, yet nevcrthelefs fuch a white Gold doth as yet contain in it its own peculiar Colour, the which, a little Saltpeter call in upon it in Flux, doth eafily rc- ft(^re unto it ; For then that whitenefs vanifheth, and the Truth appears, and fliews you, that it neither loft its yellow Colour, nor its weight, but retained them both, in the Cementation. Nay, we have been ma¬ ny times deceived our felvts by thefe kind of Opera¬ tions, and have perfuaded our felvcs, (hat we had di- : Ipoiled the Gold of his Colour or Tincture by the Saks, whereas it had but only attradled a certain Sul¬ phur out of the Salts, by which it was made White.' You may give Credit untom.eTor I fpeak experimen¬ tally, and do not tell you dreaming Stories. I will inftance it unto you, by an Example. DilTolve a little Gold in fomc Aqua hegif, and pout the Solution up¬ on powdered lartar., that fo being poured upon the faid Tartar-powdlex, it may be hid and covered over: Put this Jartar thus moiftened with the Solution of the Gold, in a ftrong Crucible, the which you mull coyer well with a Cover, and lute it: Or rather, put it in a Cementary Potor Veifel, which wUl be better. The VelTcI being placed in the Cemenfary Fire, the Gold will extract a peculiar Sulphur ^ and become White and Brittle, after its Separation from the by being melted. And now who is it, but would be¬ lieve, that the Salts had extraded the Colour of the Gold from it, whereas if is no fuch matter. For a lit¬ tle Saltpeter^ or clfe the Cwm//Kw,or Cupel can drive aw'ay all this white Golour, and reftorc it to its for¬ mer Yellownefs again ^ and this is, what my felf have feveral times done and experienced with mine own hands. A. Korp again., here's a new Story I never heard of aforey who would ever have believedy buty that when they hee^d taken their Gold (tinged with a whiter Colour than Silver ) out of the Cementary Vejfely it bad been clearly difpoiled of its ^linUure i Bus new feeing it is not foy there muji of neceftty lye hidden under fuch an ASion aS thiSy fome other Secret and Wonder. Verily it is no tri¬ fling Matter thus to make Gold whitey without the help of the white Metals i and it U the more wonderful too, he- caufe it is not kyown^ from whence that white Colour re- ceiveth its Kife : It could not get it from the Aqua Regis, nor could it have it from the Tartar, and this makys me fill wonder the more. And therefore ypr ay y rid me of this doubty and unriddle the buflnefs unto me, for 'tis not without caufoy that I fuppofe flme great Secret may lye thereunder hidden. B. Attend diligently to what I fay,, therefore, for its impoffible for you to apprehend all things at one very dafli £ as I may fay, and at firft. ] We will firlt of all treat about the Gold only, and of other Secrets afterwards in due time. But yet £ by the byj I would have you obferve in this place, this one thing > that as touching that Sulphuty which made the Gold white and brittle, there muft needs be a notable Frknd- linefs betwixt them, becaufe it was fo eafily extra- <3:ed out of the lartar by the Gold. And upon this Account there may be ground to fuppofe, that if the Gold were left lying longer in that c’ofe Cementation, that Sulphur which rendered the Gold fo white, might haply be rendred Red, and fix in the Gold. For eve¬ ry Sulphur is a Tindfure, vvhen it is made fixed, and gets an Ingrefs, from the other Metals. Do not un¬ dervalue this Secret, but fifli out the Property of this thing, by a more accurate Meditation, for you will draw from thence much Good; A- Verily. / can methinkj conjtUnre , that this very kyack, hath more in it than it (hews for •, 1 will fi-arcb thereinto more accurately y perhaps this very way is a nearer one, than that which requires the inverflon of the Gold. J rememher that I have read amongjl the Sayings of the Th/lojophers , thU B'^prefflan y That their Gold ■ does not tinge, unlels it be firft tinged, nor receiveth it a Red Colour, Unicfs it be made firft White. 1 perceivey that Nature is more abundantly flared with in- finite Richefy and that it cannot be fo eafily Searcht to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30322522_0736.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
