On the spagyric medicine of Van Helmont and Paracelsus
JEAN MAVERIC
After the succinct presentation of the preparations of ancient elementary chemistry, after the in-depth study of the operations of spagyric chemistry of the ancient masters, it is appropriate to clarify the philosophical works of a learned doctor, whose doctrine, derived from that of Paracelsus, had a great influence at the time. Van Helmont, a learned and sincere man, however, sinned in two essential points: he had too much confidence in himself, and he never had the key to the hermetic sanctuary.
A declared opponent of alchemy, he was only convinced thanks to the intervention of an adept who carried out the transmutation before his eyes.
The basis of the work of this philosopher is in the preparation of remedies by Alkaest or universal solvent, with the help of which Van Helmont claims to be able to reduce all mixed substances into their principles separated from each other, while preserving their seed its vegetative virtue.
Helmont says he has found the great Alkaest of Paracelsus; however, the latter only ever spoke of this Alkaest in a few very brief and very unedifying words, although elsewhere, he speaks of several arcana having the properties of the Alkaest, without however designating them by this name.
Helmont is as silent as Paracelsus on the composition of the Alkaest and one can wonder if he ever had this arcana in his possession, or if he only knew something close to it.
However, Helmont, not revealing the formula of his Alkaest, recommends using, in the absence of this arcane, volatilized alkalis, and he advises choosing, among all the salts, that of tartar as being the best and the most penetrating. This salt, he says, being volatilized, equal in virtue to the greatest arcana by its resolving and detergent nature and because thus it can penetrate into the human body, up to the fourth digestion, resolving in passing the excremental humors, and the unnatural coagulations that he encounters in the vessels. This salt, he adds, carries with it all the residences found in the veins, it resolves the most stubborn obstructions, thus dissipating the material cause of illnesses.
The spirit of these volatile salts has an admirable resolving quality, because it can dissolve all the simples, after which it coagulates on them, borrowing their specific virtue, which, in the human body, cures the most stubborn ailments and all fevers.
This, in summary, is the presentation of Van Helmont's doctrine concerning volatile alkalis, a doctrine which, it seems, is very true, if we are to believe the testimony of several of his disciples and, among others, George Starkey.
Overview of Van Helmont’s preparations
Among the processes that Helmont indicates for volatilizing alkalis, one of the best is the preparation which is made with vegetable oils, extracted by expression. These oils boiled in lye of alkalis, form a soap which contains little volatile salt in itself, while its caput-mortum contains a lot of fixed salt.
Essential or distilled oils cannot, due to their volatility, be boiled with lye to make soap. But there exists, says Helmont, a more secret way, by which these oils and the salt of tartar are reduced, not into soap, but into a diaphanous volatile salt, which dissolves in water. In this operation, one part of alkali changes two or three parts of oil into pure salt, without any oleoginosity, with the exception of a small portion of oil which changes into resin, distinct from salt.
This salt dissolves like any other salt; if the solution is evaporated to the cuticle, it will crystallize into the color of the plant from which the oil was extracted; this salt is so mortified and sweet that one can, without inconvenience, hold it in the mouth.
Distilled oils, although hot and of a pungent taste, retain in this operation, of flavor and odor, only what is inseparable from the average life of the mixture, even as the remedies that are prepared from them. are temperate, diuretic and slightly diaphoretic.
By this route, the salts are completely volatilized, and leave no fixed salt in the dead earth.
This operation can be easily done in two months, in a fairly large quantity, provided that one proceeds as instructed by Helmont, namely: fine, aqua, occulta, e artificiosa circulatione; to speak more clearly, digestion must take place at the deepest center of matter.
The heat necessary for this must never exceed that of the Sun in spring, in which heat alone, by art, the salt receives a fermentative determination from the oils, as these oils receive one from the salt. Thus, from these two things is born a temperate volatile salt, of the nature of those who generated it, because it receives a diuretic and detergent virtue from the alkali, and a balsamic nature from the oil, by which it penetrates into the principles that constitute us. This salt elixired in this way is so volatile that it can be dissolved or cooked in water without losing its virtue.
This elixir is the real remedy for plant venoms which it immediately mortifies. Thus, hellebore, aconite, henbane, elaterium, etc., by simple mixing with this volatile tartar, immediately become soft, and this by a heat similar to that of the human body. By a short but very artificial digestion, we can, with this elixir, obtain volatile salts from plants which do not yield essential oil when distilled with water, such as hellebore, jalap, bryone, enula campana, etc., which become salutary remedies, being corrected in this way; because, in addition to their particular properties, they also have those of the elixir which is associated with them and which is,
Therefore, says Helmont, if you want to become a true child of Science, learn to use salts, according to their true philosophical preparation, and not by ordinary preparations where we are content to extract them from the ashes of plants. by a lye that is filtered and coagulated; because in this state they cannot go further than the second digestion; but being volatilized, they become balsamic tinctures, friends of our nature, from which they are easily received, even in the principles which constitute us, according to the nature of the mixture whose crasis is contained in the volatile salt.
Treatment of alkalis according to G. Starkey
One of Van Helmont's best disciples was Georges Starkey, from whom we will borrow some useful indications for the manufacture of volatilized alkalis. Here is a summary of his opinions on this subject.
There are two ways to volatilize alkalis; by alcoholization and by elixiration.
Alcoholization is an imbibition and circulation of a volatile spirit on a fixed alkali, until from the two, a neutral product is produced which is different from both; now as there are three species of spirits: Acidic, alkaline and vinous, we can make three kinds of alcoholic alkalis, to which we have given the names of Arcanum ponticitatis, Arcanum microscomi and Arcanum samech.
The elixiration is done by the imbibition of an essential or distilled oil, or of an essential tincture, in an alkali, until from the two, a volatile salt of the nature of the oil or dye used.
Of these various operations, the easiest is the arcanum ponti citatis which consists of causing a boil by pouring an acid onto an alkali until saturation, which destroys the igneous corrosion of the alkali and makes it volatile. This result is obtained by repeated cohobations of the acid on the alkali which, after the effervescence, must be mixed with the bolus and be distilled in the manner of the spirit of salt or nitre, until that nothing more distills. It is then necessary to add new acidic spirit to the Caput-mortum until it is satisfied, then distill it again over high heat, repeating this work as long as all the alkali is present with the acidic spirit.
This can be done with the spirit of vitriol, salt or nitre, or distilled vinegar, the result of which is an Acetum forte or acetum radicis, as Paracelsus calls it.
There is another way, without distillation, by which it is enough to imbibe the alkali with a spirit until the production of a salt which we will deflegmate and which we will join with the rectified tincture of a mixed, in digesting them until colored crystallization, which contains the crasis of the mixed.
But there are other more effective preparations of which we will give some overviews.
REMARK. — It should be noted that the acidity of the spirits of niter and vitriol is very different from the acidity of the stomach which is a fermentative principle. It is therefore necessary to find a way for the latter to transform the former into its nature, because stomach acid can extinguish the igneous nature of an alkali, if it is not in excess in the remedy, and is not of mineral nature. We must therefore be very careful when it comes to salts of mineral origin, the preparation of which requires exceptional skill on the part of the artist.
To conclude, we must manage to produce a very pure neutral salt, without acrimony which, through long digestion and circulation with the essence of a mixture, becomes innocuous, sweet, subtle and which, through its volatility, exalts the virtue of the mixed with which it enters the body until the last digestions. The best way is to obtain volatilization by essential oils or by vinous spirits which are volatile sulfurs of a much nobler nature than that of mineral acids.
They must be united without any water, by a secret circulation and in the space of three months, they will change into volatile salt. Alkalis and essential oils, precisely prepared, embrace each other in bonds of love, which appears by an ammoniacal odor that the mixture gives off,
The decoction must continue as long as the mixture can dissolve in the spirit of wine, without any fatty matter rising to the surface and until the spirit unites with the mixture intimately and inseparably.
Rectify this solution at moderate heat and there will first rise a burning volatile spirit, having the taste and odor of oil, and after the release of the insipid phlegm, there will remain at the bottom of the vessel a tinted balsamic elixir.
The spirit being well delegated, unite it with this elixir, digesting them together until perfect union. But, to obtain a perfect elixir, it must be dried and crystallized, without any addition and without any separating culinary heat, and fed slowly with its oil until it has drunk three times its own quantity. Air will generate cold and dryness, and fire, not vulgar, will produce hot and humid. Understand this well, and the secret of the Alkaest, and the mysteries of the Sun and Mercury will be revealed to you.
Processes for the volatilization of alkalis
To help researchers in this direction, we offer them several processes, taken from among the best.
First process to volatilize salt of tartar
Dissolve very white salt of tartar in distilled vinegar, filter and evaporate until a film forms, then mix twice as much fine white sand, reverberate them together for twelve hours in an unglazed earthenware vessel. Redissolve this reverberated salt into vinegar; filter, evaporate, reverberate and dissolve until the salt of tartar is snow white.
Redissolve this salt in distilled vinegar, evaporate it in a bain-marie and dissolve it again until the vinegar becomes acrid and pungent.
Gently dry this salt and add its weight of wine spirit to it, digesting them together; then, distill over slow heat and add new spirit to digest again.
Continue this work as long as the wine spirit comes out as strong as before its use.
Gently evaporate and sublimate the salt over medium heat and keep it in a closed vessel.
Second process for volatilizing the salt of tartar
Water pure salt of tartar with its spirit until completely saturated; put it in a glass matra with its capital and well-luted container and distill until dryness. Extract the little fixed salt that will remain in the matra after distillation and calcine it in a crucible over a fusion fire.
Put this salt back into the matras and cobble on it, the liquor drawn out while distilling.
Distill again as the first time and repeat this operation until the fixed salt has absorbed all the spirit of tartar, which must happen at the seventh distillation.
Then pour in the wine spirit, rectify with the salt thus prepared and distill until the fixed salt has absorbed all the wine spirit.
Third process for volatilizing the salt of tartar
Pound salt of tartar and saltpeter of one pound each separately and then mix them. Put everything in a clean iron pot and detonate with a lit coal, stirring the material with an iron rod, until the red color disappears and the salt becomes very white. To have pure tartar alkali, it must be calcined in the oven until it becomes a white mass; then, put the tartar calcined by the nitre, described above, in a crucible in a wind oven until it melts, pour it into a heated bronze mortar and it will dissolve into a bluish alkaline mass which melts at the air. Take this calcined salt and dissolve it in boiling water while stirring; let stand until clarified and any impurities remain at the bottom.
To have it perfectly pure, you must take the solution of one of the salts before evaporation, and mix it with as much clear quicklime in water and leave them for fifteen days to ferment in a covered stoneware vase, pour the clear gently and evaporate to dryness in a clean vase and you will have a white and pure volatile salt.
The volatile salt thus obtained must be slowly digested with the expressed oil of the plant chosen. This digestion must be long, according to Helmont, and must end with a long circulation so as to volatilize the salt obtained again.
This salt digested at very gentle heat with the spirit of wine, it
communicates the tincture of the plant and leaves, through several operations, the salt stripped of its tincture. This spirit, distilled over slow heat, will leave the tincture at the bottom of the vessel, and it will be the pure crasis of the plant, which is an excellent remedy when one wishes to have the tincture separated from the salt.
Preparation of the Samech elixir according to Georges Starkey
Starkey bets on a certain Samech elixir which is first obtained by the union of alkalis volatilized by essential oils with alkalis volatilized by the spirit of wine.
The basis of the operation consists of distilling and combining turpentine oil with sulfur until perfect union; then mix salt of tartar, and extract the tincture with spirit of wine.
After the Samech has been dissolved in the spirit of wine flavored with cinnamon, and the spirit has been separated by distillation, this spirit and also the Samech are deflegmed and then they are mixed intimately. Then, we must take saffron, myrrh, aloe, or all three together and reduce them to powder which we will mix with its weight of tartar, by an artificial digestion so active that they make their tincture corrected and exalted.
This tincture, extracted by alcohol flavored with cinnamon, must be added to the elixir of Samech, from which we will then obtain a spirit of excellent smell. The balm and the spirit being united by a secret digestion, will produce a Samech or elixir of property of good smell which will equal the same elixir made by the Alkaesl. To increase the virtue of this elixir, make it granulate itself by degrees until it dries. Feed it afterwards with a flavored spirit, six or eight times, drying it in the air each time and moistening it; by the moderate fire of sand, sublimate it and you will have the Samech, the elixired oil and the glorified tinctures sublimated together, the virtues of which are admirable. The dose is ten to twenty grains.
The process can be used to prepare all vegetable dyes, and here are the various mixtures that are best suited to them.
The hellebore which is sphenic and cephalic, is prepared with the root of Asarum and Jalap. Jalap goes well with Opium. To make a liverwort, you have to mix the root & Emula cam-pana with rhubarb and wild roe roots. For a stomachic, add saffron, rosemary flowers and bistort roots. For a powerful diaphoretic, mix bistort root, saffron, and opium.
A perfect diuretic is made with rhubarb, saffron and satyrion of which Paracelsus and Helmont make their Aroph. Against constipation, mix Colocynth, aloe and Peruvian balsam. Against cough and flow: opium, caranna and gum-drop. In this way, we can vary the compositions according to
the principles experienced, and according to the various cases that we will have to treat.
Van Helmont's Alkaest and Alkaests in general
Van Helmont's Alkaest will lead us to talk about the solvents that the masters mentioned in their works.
First of all, and to radically resolve part of the question, there is only one universal solvent which is the Mercury of the philosophers, and as Van Helmont was ignorant of the composition of this mercury, his Alkaest could only be 'a particular solvent. The confidence that this philosopher had in himself and the enthusiasm that he showed for everything he discovered must have made him exaggerate to himself the virtues of his Àlkaest, of whom, moreover, he did not never revealed the confection. Here is what he says about it: When the alkaline has perfectly dissolved a plant, we distinguish all the impurities between which there is always a liquor distinct from the others in color, which is a subtle substance containing all the crasis of the mixture. And he adds: So this is the best of all preparations, and especially when the body of the mixed person is resolved into a sweet tepidity. When we dissolve a simple substance which produces oil, the oil separates from the mercurial liquor, and this oil and this liquor separate from the solvent to be digested at the same heat, into a salt which is the first being of the plant.
The alkaline can be separated from the body that it has dissolved, and the prepared remedy only possesses the virtue of the mixture from which it was made, which is more precise and exalted; while the volatile alkali remains united with the balsamic tincture of the oil that it has volatilized, and with the essences of the plants that have been added to it, and is enriched with their medicinal virtues.> When we dissolve a simple substance which produces oil, the oil separates from the mercurial liquor, and this oil and this liquor separate from the solvent to be digested at the same heat, into a salt which is the first being of the plant.
The alkaline can be separated from the body that it has dissolved, and the prepared remedy only possesses the virtue of the mixture from which it was made, which is more precise and exalted; while the volatile alkali remains united with the balsamic tincture of the oil that it has volatilized, and with the essences of the plants that have been added to it, and is enriched with their medicinal virtues.> When we dissolve a simple substance which produces oil, the oil separates from the mercurial liquor, and this oil and this liquor separate from the solvent to be digested at the same heat, into a salt which is the first being of the plant.
The alkaline can be separated from the body that it has dissolved, and the prepared remedy only possesses the virtue of the mixture from which it was made, which is more precise and exalted; while the volatile alkali remains united with the balsamic tincture of the oil that it has volatilized, and with the essences of the plants that have been added to it, and is enriched with their medicinal virtues.> into a salt which is the first being of the plant.
The alkaline can be separated from the body that it has dissolved, and the prepared remedy only possesses the virtue of the mixture from which it was made, which is more precise and exalted; while the volatile alkali remains united with the balsamic tincture of the oil that it has volatilized, and with the essences of the plants that have been added to it, and is enriched with their medicinal virtues.> into a salt which is the first being of the plant. The alkaline can be separated from the body that it has dissolved, and the prepared remedy only possesses the virtue of the mixture from which it was made, which is more precise and exalted; while the volatile alkali remains united with the balsamic tincture of the oil that it has volatilized, and with the essences of the plants that have been added to it, and is enriched with their medicinal virtues.>
So the virtues that Helmont attributes to his Àlkaest are the same that the wise men grant to their mercury, unknown to Helmont. What should we conclude from this?
Despite the obscurity which reigns over the composition of the Âlkaests, both of Helmont and of Paracelsus, it is not impossible, being on the true path, to penetrate their particular nature, and this is what we will attempt to demonstrate. Most authors believed that alkaest was a volatilized and supremely exalted alkali. This is how a certain Mr. Le Pelletier, from Rouen, published, around 1700, a treatise on Alkaest, the origin of which was found in human urine; error and candor 1 Is it permissible to believe that a universal arcana can be drawn from animal matter?
Paracelsus, in the treatise Strength of the Limbs, chapter VI, spoke of the Alkaest in connection with liver diseases.
“Alkaest,” he says, “is a great comfort for the liver; the way of making this liquor is none other than to resolve the coagulated subject; we coagulate it again into another form and we resolve it again, and so on, until it has overcome its like. »
This is all that Paracelsus said about the Alkaest. Helmont, from this, concluded that it was a certain circulated salt that Paracelsus named somewhere, Grand-circulé. Now, we can in fact extract a powerful solvent from common salt or nitre, by repeated resolution and circulation, but this cannot be the Alkaest of which Helmont speaks, because any arcane having universal properties can only be found in the metallic kingdom and this is what made Gérard Dornée and Martin Rollandus say that the Alkaest of Paracelsus was a prepared mercury.
It follows from this that the Alkaest of Helmont cannot be the same as that of Paracelsus. Helmont, somewhere, speaks obscurely of a preparation based on antimony which consists of extracting the mercurial principle from this mineral and dissolving it in the essence of exalted turpentine, by repeated circulations and sublimations, until perfect union. This product must then be dissolved in an ailkaest of nitre and circulated together so that they become one body. We believe that the spirit of wine intervenes in the purification of this mineral menstruum, which, in fact, has some of the virtues that Helmont attributes to Alkest. But, among the solvents or menses used by Raymond Lull and Paracelsus, there are some which are much closer to the said Alkaest.
First of all, to obtain an Alkaest worthy of the name, you must be in possession of the saline Alkaests of tartar, nitre and common salt, with the help of which you can intimately dissolve the mercurial substance of certain metals. However, none of these menses can equal the virtue of the mercury of the philosophers, but this subject being the prerogative of the children of Hermes alone, we will not mention it here. In addition to the three saline menstrua mentioned above, it is necessary to know how to extract from storm rain water a divine spirit, by which we can ennoble all the mineral menstrua, by spagyric art.
The spirit of wine, subtle and exalted by the means we have previously spoken of, is a powerful agent of purification and sharpness in the preparation of menstruation. Here then are the five spirits required in the work of the Alkaests, the composition of which was always hidden and which we are revealing for the first time. But it is well understood that this work can only be done by spagyric art and not by vulgar chemistry; we must therefore meditate judiciously on everything we have said and will continue to say about this art.
In addition to these five spirits or primary menstrua, the work of the alkaests requires the assistance of certain mercurial metals, because there cannot exist an alkaest outside the mineral kingdom. These metals are lead, antimony, mercury, tin and finally metallus-primus, the noblest of all, the one used by Paracelsus, and which we leave to researchers to discover. The first three saline spirits are active at first, but they must be subtilized by the quintessence of wine and ennobled, attenuated and evolved by the spirit drawn from rainwater.
On the quintessence of salts according to Paracelsus
Here is what Paracelsus says regarding the extraction of the Quintessence of salts.
“Cohobin many times the salts with their own liquor, purify with the phlegm, separate the body into viscous form Until the fixed spirit remains at the bottom; dissolve this fixed spirit in its own liquor and during the effervescence, separate the pure from the impure with the spirit of wine. »
A philosophical menstruation should never be corrosive like vulgar etchings, because its function is to strengthen, preserve, purify, exalt, separate the soul from the body and not to destroy as waters do. -strong.
On this subject, it is appropriate to meditate on what we have already said about cold fires. The salt spirits only serve at the beginning of the operation as active principles, but their destructive and corrosive nature must then be attenuated and modified to acquire a nobler, more subtle and permanent latitude. What we have said about the volatilization of tartar must be sufficient for a subtle solvent to be extracted; but as for common salt and nitre, we will speak of them clearly enough for a wise disciple to be able to extract their essence.
Here is the operational process by which we can make the alkaest of common salt or Small Circulated of Paracelsus:
Calcine four times of common salt described with as much powdered quicklime, the first time for four hours, then reduce by one hour for each calcination.
Dissolve in plenty of water, filter and coagulate between each distillation.
Pour seven parts of spirit of salt on one of prepared salt, digest to dissolve it and put the whole to putrefy in a vaporous bath in thirty days, distill by separating the phlegm which rises first, and put back on the golden material which becomes red, the strongest spirit. Dissolve and putrefy as above, and this, so many times that the matter is like red oil which is the quintessence of Salt.
To further refine it, and remove all acrimony, it must be circulated with the spirit of wine, then distilled by rubbing the spirit several times over the residue. To exhale it, we must draw the phlegm, then the element of air or oil by which we must draw the element of fire, which remains at the bottom. But, for the initiated, there is a wonderful separator with the help of which phlegm is expelled, which shortens this work by half. The influence of the rainwater spirit comes next.
Operation process of niter alkaline
The niter salt must be dissolved in storm rain water clarified by sand and evaporated so many times that the niter is without acrimony or odor. It must then be molten in a melting crucible by throwing in little by little pieces of coal, as they detonate, which must be repeated for two or three hours, or as long as the niter is fixed and greenish in color. Put it into a fine powder and dissolve it in water by deliquium in the cellar; filter it, coagulate and then dry. Pulverize it and dissolve part of it with four well-deflegged nitre spirits. Let it boil and digest in the ashes; add new spirit and redigest again, all three times. Then calcine the material over a wheel fire every two or three hours, until it turns ruby red.
To extract the spirit, it is necessary to pulverize this material and putrefy it in several vessels in a vaporous bath, until it has the odor of sulfur and the spirits begin to rise. Distill in the bath to remove the phlegm, then in the ashes to have the spirit; we will thus have the elements Fire, Water and Air.
To obtain the Earth, the feces must be calcined by the burning mirror or over a strong fire, and dissolved in their water, then filtered and crystallized. Dissolve into crystals in their mind at the rate of one part to four of mind; digest, cohere as long as everything passes in an exuberant mercurial spirit that must be cooked in athanor as long as the colors fade. This liquor must then be treated with the spirit of wine, as we have indicated. Like the spirit of common salt, this menstruum must then be ennobled by the spirit drawn from rainwater, which makes it an alkaest.
noted: It is implied that these quintessences of salt and nitre have nothing in common with the ordinary spirits of these salts.
On the separation of the elements from metals according to Paracelsus
Make an etching of saltpeter, vitriol and alum in equal parts, by mixing the distilled water several times on his feces and distill again. In this etching, clarify a small quantity of silver to attenuate it, which you will then separate by precipitation with the salt of ammonia. This done, dissolve in this water whatever metal you want in the form of shot, separate the water by the bath and cohob on the residue and this so many times that an oil is formed at the bottom of the vase; that of gold will be brilliant, that of silver will be celestial blue, that of iron will be garnet, of copper green, of mercury white, of grayish lead and of yellowish tin.
Note.—Raymond Lulle, speaking of this separation of elements, suggests that this ammonia salt is a quintessence of mercury.
REMARK. — In this operation the metals are divided into two distinct parts: the quintessence the body, both of which are in the form of thick and viscous liquid, and which, after their separation, can no longer be joined. The fatty oil of the impure body is whitish, while the quintessential oil is colored with the tincture of the metal, as we said above.
Paracelsus adds this to the previous process:
“Dissolve the metal in water, as above, distill in the bath by cohobbing, putrefy for as long as it becomes thick oil which must be distilled in small stills, and part of the metal will remain at the bottom which is necessary put back in oil as before, and so until everything is reduced to oil. Putrefy for another month, over a low heat. The vapors will rise and bloom in the container and you will separate this distillation; finally two dark colors will appear, one white and the other depending on the metal. Separate these two colors so that the quintessence remains at the bottom and the impure white floats. Separate them through the funnel and keep the quintessence over which you will pour rectified wine spirit and digest everything together until the aridity is separated from the metallic essence, repeating the operation. Finally, put water on it, distill and wash until the essence is dulcified. This is how the quintessence of metals is made. »
This process of Paracelsus is obviously incomplete and unsuitable for giving the pure quintessence of metals. But he can direct the disciple in the making of alkaests into which enters the mercurial principle of one of the five metals of which we have spoken.
In summary, the work of the alkaests consists in obtaining the subtle and essential menstrual spirit from one of the three designated salts, in dissolving in it one of the five mercurial metals of which we have spoken (after preliminary preparation) and in circulate and resolve one on the other until complete assimilation. We must then exalt and purify this liquor with the spirit of wine and ennoble it, dignify it and refine it with the spirit of rainwater.
It is obvious that in this mixture, the metallic principle is in much less quantity than the menstrual principle. As for the choice of salts and metals that should be combined, we will say something about it without however going into too much detail, given the lack of importance of this choice; However, we cannot highly recommend the use of metallus primus in preference to any other, dissolved in a menstruum of niter prepared with a slight proportion of common salt.
Metals that can be dissolved by saline menstruation and by metallic mercury required in the composition of alkaests.
The menstrual spirit of niter dissolves all metals, except tin and gold:
The menstrual spirit of tartar dissolves all metals, except lead, tin, antimony;
The Menstrual Spirit of common salt dissolves iron, tin and arsenic;
Metallus primus dissolves all metals, except iron and bismuth;
Antimony glass dissolves all metals except gold;
Tin mercury dissolves all metals;
Mercury or quicksilver dissolves all metals, except iron.
Lead mercury dissolves all metals except tin, copper, mercury and silver;
Common sulfur dissolves all metals, except gold and zinc.
noted. — To make an alkaest, it is necessary, according to the goal we propose, to establish its composition according to the data presented above, knowing however that these salts and metals united and exalted by spagyric art,
Of the various vehicles and philosophical rules
We have said that the elements required for the making of alkaests had to be purified and subtilized by the spirit of wine:
but we must first obtain the quintessence of this spirit, and in this regard, In addition to the spagyric preparations that we have given, here is a process of Paracelsus, by which he claims to obtain the spirit of philosophical wine.
The wine must be frozen in the cold of winter and in the middle of the frozen mass there is a very pure wine spirit which, according to Paracelsus, is a quintessence. We leave this author responsible for this statement, on which he is also very concise.
Rainwater and its distillation
Storm rainwater must be collected at the time of the spring equinox, around May 5, or in summer. For this purpose, we prepare an open barrel which we place in a garden and at the bottom of which we must throw a handful of nitre salt. You must wait until this barrel is half or three-quarters full, without worrying about the water becoming corrupted, and leave it exposed to the air for fifteen days: then, it must be filtered and put into well-stoppered stoneware bottles. . This water as it is is preferable to any other as a vehicle in the distillation of certain plants or seeds, as well as for washing plants and salts.
To extract the volatile spirit which is an admirable menstruum, it must be distilled in a glass or earthen bladder with its head of more and the serpentine channel which passes through the barrel. It is first necessary to extract only two thirds of it and repeat this distillation until the water has been reduced to a tenth of its volume. If we want to obtain the quintessence of this spirit, we must mix it with an equal part of putrefied rainwater, and further distill the spirit which we will put back on its water, then finally distill the spirit alone three times. to reduce and rectify it. It is with the help of this quintessence that we dignify the alkaests, through circulation and distillation.
Acid menstruation from vinegar
Dissolve one pound of crystals of vinegar or purified tartar in five pounds of distilled vinegar and digest them together in a meeting vessel for a fortnight in the steam bath. Then distil using the sand retort, until dry, increasing the heat towards the end. Calcine the residue until white and add another half a pound of pure tartar. Put these calcined salts in a retorte and distill them cohobally, so many times that the spirit removes with it a large part of the fixed salt, which happens at the tenth distillation. Then mix this spirit with the first obtained and distill slowly three times, pushing the fire to the last rectification—the menstruum can penetrate metals.
Starkey's sulfurous menstruation
Equal parts of salt of dissolved tartar and colcothar of Roman vitriol perfectly sweetened with its salt; boil them together until the moisture has completely evaporated. Melt the mass in a crucible, then pour it and dissolve it in lye. This sulfur must then be volatilized by mortification and regeneration, then distilled and rectified and it will give a pale green balsamic liqueur. It can be fixed in the fire with a little prepared mercury, and an admirable tincture can be extracted with the essential spirit of wine.
This dyeing is similar to the horizontal gold of Helmont, which is done by alkaest.
Admirable philosophical guideline, to extract the quintessence of plants
Digest over eight days several kinds of aromatic seeds such as anise, cumin, fennel, dill, caraway, nutmeg, mint, star anise; then plants like lemon balm, celandine, arnica montana, etc., with a little nitre salt, in the essential spirit of wine, so that the spirit floats over the matter; and this must be done in a steamy bath. Draw this spirit and a single distillation Pour on the matter as much volatile spirit of rainwater as there was spirit of wine and let it digest for four days in the Vaporous bath. Distill this spirit by cohobbing on the residue three times. Then mix the two spirits obtained and circulate them to the vessel of Hermes for three days. Then distil and rectify one last time.
This plant menstruum is capable of drawing the quintessence of all plants.
Its preparation is not found in any work.
noted. — As a vehicle for the hard parts of plants (wood, bark, hard seeds, etc.), we can use simply filtered rainwater, or even fountain water in which we have dissolved a little common nitre salt . Digestion of these things with one of these vehicles, in a steam bath, prepares them for distillation. Rainwater, combined with cream of tartar, corrects mucilaginous purgatives such as senna and rhubarb. The water drawn by distillation from the dew of May is an excellent menstruum which can dissolve gold. The volatile alkali circulated with the wine spirit is a powerful solvent.
On the use of Alkaests (1)
When you want to separate the different principles of a plant, you must first wash it with filtered rainwater, then cut it into pieces and introduce it into a narrow and long mat. The pieces of the mixture must be very dry externally, because the surface water does not belong to its own humidity.
Gently pour the alkaest through the neck of the matras, so that it extends a little beyond the body of the plant. Cover the mattress and expose it to sunlight, or place it in a warm place. A fire of quicklime and hay may be sufficient in this case.
Let the Alkaest operate until you see various superimposed liqueurs in the mixture. First the Alkaest which is at the bottom, a luminous dark yellow; above, the organic and earthy part of the mixture, in a dark mass; still above, a greenish and diaphanous water, and finally, at the very top, the colored oil which is the sulfur or essence of the plant.
Separating these principles requires a deft hand.
When we want to divide the principles of a metal, we must first melt it with nitre, bismuth and borax acid, and thus it will be more pure and malleable. Being molten, it must be passed through a sieve over cold water, to turn it into shot. Wash it afterwards in boiling water, dry it and then put it in thick glass pots. Pour over the alkaest, stopper the matras and digest over a fire of ashes, until the principles of the metal are superimposed in various colored liquors, the earth remaining at the bottom.
(1) It has been claimed that the Fluorine of modern chemistry was the Alkaest of the ancients. Fluorine is synonymous with phthor (I destroy), and the facts show that Fluorine destroys everything that comes near it. This speaks for itself.
Expose to the serene overnight, equal parts of purified nitre and common salt, so that they resolve by deliquium. Dry them out in the Sun and expose them again to serenity, until they can no longer resolve themselves. Put these salts in a long-necked bowl, with the fourth part of tin scraps and pour over the whole six parts of ammoniacal spirit, “volatile alkali”.
Expose the well-sealed mattress to a gentle humid heat for three days. Then slowly pour the spirit of distilled vinegar over the alkali until the effervescence stops. Then put everything in a closed vessel to circulate for seven full days at slow heat. At the end of this time,
It is then necessary to slowly distill this liquor three times, and then mix it with as much very subtle rainwater spirit. Leave everything to circulate for three, seven or fifteen days and rectify three times. The quintessential spirit thus obtained is an admirable solvent, non-corrosive and which is capable of resolving most mixed compounds into their primitive elements.