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.
737/820 (page 27)
![Part III. ^he Boo!^ of Dialogues, to the i^ottom^ and the longer a Man feeJ^s^ the more bo .finds and meets with ^ infomnch that at laji^ there w fnih plenty of good things offering themfelves to fuch Seekers^ that It nir.kes them pnz<.eld tvhicb to ch(MiJe^ feeing they fo commend each others Benefit and Profit. Bejides, your words are very hard to be underjiood^ and hard to be born, tor it fvems a thing exceeding all belief., that the t'noji confiant Fire-ditrhtg-Metal., Gotd.fhould be fo chan~ ■ more Gold., and very hardly., yea., not at ail reducible by the help of Art into its former Body. I do often meet with that Opinion and Decree of thefhilo- , Jopbtrs in my frequent reading of their Bool{s, viz. that G(dd mnji he putrefied., if any better and nobUr thing h to be generated thereout of: But whereas it feemed unto me a thing beyond the Power of Nature.^ and altogether wtpoffibk., for fitch a conjlant Matter to undergo any Putrefaction, I Juppofed that the Philofophers pointed at fame other thing by that Putrefaction of theirs. Mean while., I earnejily expeCt from you a Demonjiration of the pojfibility and Pruth of th'n thing. B. Come then, on God’s Name, a little nearer me, and heed well the things which (hall be (hewrrunto you. We will here take half an Ounce of common Gold, and put it into this Aqua FortU, made of Vi¬ triol and Saltpeter, whereto we will add the fame weight as the Gold is of, or a little more, of our Saltarmoniack^, without which, the Aqua Forth alone, and by it felf, is not able to dilTolve the Gold. ff A. Pray, Sir, why do you fay. Our Salarmoniack ? idre there fever al and different hjnds of it .f For my part, when I dtffolve Cod., I put into the Aqua Fortis, that common ] Salarmoniack, which U every where to be had tn the Merchants Warehoufes , and U very fit to diffolve Gold into a Fellow water. B. You fpeak very well after your own way i And Iconfefs, that every Salarmoniad^ mixt with Aqua Forth is very good to diffolve Gold > nor is this any new way, for ’tis in very much ufe amongtt all the Chy- mijis , who are wont on this wife to diffolve their Gold, but yet that which is thus dilTolved, ftill re¬ mains Gold, and 4loth eafily admit of being again precipitated out of the Aqua Forth, and of being redu¬ ced by Fufion into the former Body, it had afore its .So¬ lution. But if fo be, that the Solution (hall be made by the help of our Sal Mrmoniack.^, then is the Cafe vaftly altered , and your attempting its Redudi- on again will be in vain. For if Gold be but diffol- ved barely once with our Saltarmoniack^, it admits not any more of melting, nor doth it of it felf return again into a malleable Metallick Body, but gets a Red¬ didi Scarlet kind of Colour in the Tryal [] or Cruci¬ ble and remains an unfufil Powder. And if you add Tome Borax thereunto, and fet it in the Fire then to nick, it will pafs into a Red Glafs, which is afign of Its being plainly deftroyed, and of its being tranf- iTiUted into another Body. And therefore 1 dare aver, that there is feated in our Salt Armoniack. a power of inverting, and tranfmuting Gold, and of making it fit ^or the Philofophical putrefad'ion i which thing is impollible to be done by any other Saks whatever they be, and what Name foeever called by. A. Certainly, thh is a Divine miraculous thing, to fub- jeU Gold, fo mightily conjiant in the Fire, unto Putrefa¬ ction, and to reduce it by PutrefaUion, into a nothing: Dor I have read too and again, amongfi the Fhilofophers V/ritings, that it is an eafier thing to mal^e Gold by Art, than to delirny Gold made by Nature. And therefore thh Salt muji needs be a very wonderful one, which h able to efftPi thefe and other, the likp alin fi incredible things. B. Well may you term it a wonderful Salt, for Co it is, tlic like of which, no Man will find in the whole World i though to fuch as know it, it is (b vile and mean a thing ■, infomuch that fcarcc any one would think it likedy, that fuch things could be done thcieby, as are wont to be, ft)ould it be but named by its own proper Title. Does noi, I pray, that Phi- lofopher, Cofmopolita for SandnoTv~^ confefs, that he hath oftentimes declared the Art, and Secret of the whole Philofophick work, word for word, (bm^times to one, (ofnetimes ro another, and yet they would not at all believe him, by reufon of the meannels, or vile- nefs of the Work? And does not he make frequent men¬ tion of his own, and not the common .Sa/ yirmoniack.^ But that you may yet give more belief and credit to out Salt, I would have you read the Jurba of the Philo- fopherf, wherein you will find all thofe Things which they have publifiied concerning their Salt : • And a- mongff others, hearken to thofe few words, which the Rofary mentions : Our Salt dffolves Gold into a red Colour, and Silver into a white Colour, and trafifmutes them nut of their Corporeity into a Spirituality, and with our Salt, are their Bodies calcined. And for this rea- (bn. Lumen Lumimtm, alfo fays, lhat if the Omnipo’-^ tent God had not created thh Salt, the Elixir could not have been perfeUed, and the Study of Chymfiry would have been m vain. Avicen faith, If thou hafi a defire of getting Riches, prepare Salts, that they may be chan¬ ged into a clear Water, for by the Fire are Salts changed into Spirits; Salts are the Roots of thy wor!^. Hermes faith : All Salts are Enemies to cur Workj, and to our Art, five the Salt of our hum t Arnold us Lith, Every Salt that h well and rightly prepared, h of the Nature of Salt Armoniack, and the whole Myiiery of our Art confijis in the Preparation of common Salt : He therefore that kpows Salt, and its Solution, to him is the My(iery of the ancient wife Men kitowr. And therefore bend the utmofi Meditations of thy Wit upon the Nature of that Salt only, in which the Wifdom of the ancient wife Men, and every My fiery, U found hidden and concealed. The Writings of the Philofophers are full of thofe and fuch like Sayings, and they do every where mightily infifi upon Salt. And now, what think you of thefe Teftimonies v what! do the things I have fpoken,yet find any belief in your Breaft > A. Tes Veriy, and now 1 aril on your fide ■, hut yet I do as yet defire, and heartily wifh for this one thing, that you would for once let me fee your Labour, whereby I may convince other incredulous Perfons, and maky them believe too. B. Well, I am content v and come let us go to work, and let us put the Gold in its requifite Men^ llruum, and place it in warm Sand, thereby to haffen forward the Solution of the famethough there is flrength fufficient in our Menftruum, to diffolve the Gold in the Cold without Fife. We (hall in a fhort time fee it of a yellow Colour : And behold that very Colour, and the Gold it felf is fo changed, as it is never more reducible into its former golden Body. Thus have you now the entrance and beginning, which as yet is vafily diflant from the wifhc fer end : And when you now fee the beginning, know, that is the fir ft day of our Philofophick Labour. Next, let us proceed to the Putrefa<ftion of the diffolved Gold, without which, no Colours prefent themfelves to our view. Behold in this very moment, Sol begins to wax black, and in a little while after it will conceive fuch a thorough b'acknefs, that it will be like to Ink, and may ferve to write withal on Paper, yhis black- nefs, the Philofophers call the Head of tlie Crow, by](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30322522_0737.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
