by ROUSSEAU DE LA GRANDE ROUGE
Capucin du Louvre
Of the preparation of Remedies in general.
All the experiments that can be done in Physics will always be little appreciated, if we do not at the same time make it known that they are based on such solid principles that there is reason to hope for all the effects that they can have. we promise; mainly in Medicine, where the most subtle and specious reasonings do nothing at all. We know that there is no shortage of drugs in the pharmacy, and we are aware that with all these drugs, we see the same effects in the application we make of them, that we could say that the Remedies are lacking for the most pressing needs.
The most skilful Physicists searched for the cause long before me, and all attributed it to the lack of knowledge of the remedy, or to the fault of its preparation. We are not going to the goal where Nature can tend in these kinds of movements; the same Nature must act there much more than art; & it is not enough to make expensive compositions or mixtures, which often spoil what is good in the remedies more than they perfect them through their mixture.
We must therefore consider three things in a Remedy. The first if to cure a disease such Plant, such Ore, etc. is good & sufficient in itself, alone, & without any alteration or considerable preparation. For then Art can do nothing but spoil it, and extinguish a simple virtue that would no longer be found there. As would the raw juice of wild chicory, a small glass of which given at the first approach of the attack of fevers, usually cures them in two or three doses. Likewise, raw nettle juice from the White Nettle called Galeopsis in herbaria, two or three spoonfuls of which taken in the morning and evening, cures dysentery and several blood losses in women. Van Helmont names it, Urtica non pangens flore albo cucullato; of which he speaks for the vapors or diseases of the womb, but he does not say how to use them. For these kinds of remedies no other preparation is necessary; because virtue consists in the very simplicity of the simple which could be corrupted by altering it.
The second thing to consider in the Remedies, this is when they are too weak for the effect we hope for; & the third when they are too violent in their operation. We must therefore exalt some and correct others; & we usually only know how to carry out these two major operations in Medicine by mixing several other useless drugs, which do not make the Remedy better than it was before. There is indeed another intelligence in Nature, to achieve the exaltation of Remedies that are too weak, and the correction of those that are too strong. Good Physics does it to us like touching it with a finger. Nature has within herself its agents and its means to satisfy both, as we will see later. When we have been able to mature the seminal and physical principles of beings, there is no longer violence or venom in the greatest poisons. However, I do not deny that there are sometimes very useful, and even very necessary, mixtures ; but we will see later that they will be made on principles quite different from ordinary Pharmacy. As for example when I mix another Remedy with Opium, it is not to correct it, since I have already corrected it by itself, without any mixture; but it is to contribute to the same ends for which I give Opium. For fevers I mix febrifuges, for dysenteries softeners, & vulneraries . Likewise for other things, of which we will see the practice & experience.
We must therefore understand where the weakness or violence can come from in the Remedies, in order to be able to correct or exalt their properties, and obtain from them the success we desire. For me, I have always believed that Physical virtue resides in the essential, seminal principle of each being, which makes movements in us that are as difficult to explain as they are difficult to be known in themselves.
Of the natural movement of Plants.
I know what modern physics says is most plausible, concerning the movements and configuration of moving and moving parts; & I know that with all this we produce nothing new in Nature on this system. On the contrary, after many words, which we condemn in others, everything is reduced to falling back into the same inconvenience of not truly proving anything by its causes, and of always being, as before, suspended by suppositions familiar to this opinion. : which against the design of its first principle,
I agree in good faith that there are many things that we worry about a lot in Physics, that we cannot explain, because as they are not the object of any of the senses, we would not be able to explain them. form a notion that represents them; & even less could we express the idea that we would have of it if we could form one; for speech is not an organ proportioned to represent what is not the object of the ear, nor of the other senses.
I will therefore not undertake to prove by what reason one simple is a venom, another is an antidote, another is a soporific; like Opium which is both: because very seriously I believe this to be completely inexpressible. A good Naturalist would not be satisfied if we told him that it is because there are in Opium particles figured in such a way, which, clinging with the particles of the vital or animal spirits and embarrassing them, prevent their movement, and cause sleep: a clever man will not hear anything more advantageous than if the soporific power had been attributed to an occult virtue, which we treat as ignorance today.
Because finally, if after the supposition of these movements and these figures that we advance gratis, I could say and positively determine that it is a sort of movement, and of the figuration of parts, it will be necessary to make sleep or for to prevent ; and if the one who allegedly gave me a demonstration of this fact showed me at the same time that he gives a movement of this nature to particles which he will also show me figured as he says; & that it is in his power to make these figurations, & these movements to produce such effects. Then I will agree that he will have given me significant proof of what he will have supposed. But while we will always remain in the terms of arbitrary suppositions, which each supposer will determine according to his whim; I would not find myself more convinced than if I had been told that it is an occult virtue.
In fact, say in particular to ten of these Philosophers, that they determine what the movement must be, and what will be the figure of the particles which put to sleep, each will represent it in his own fashion, and will give the power to put to sleep to the figure which 'another will determine to cause eternal insomnia.
So I leave it to whoever wants to have fun,
But assuming the fact, which is notorious, without knowing how. I say that the same seminal being of the Poppy, which is capable of producing its plant, is also capable of producing the effects that it produces in Medicine. It is in my Physics the same thing as a specified vegetation; who has the determination, and his knowledge through the idea of the Creator, to always make the same figures in the plant, and the same fruits without error, as God himself thought, without the thought of God having any figure or movement.
A Philosopher of the time, perhaps rising up against this way of speaking, will say to me with a serious air: I do not understand that; these words mean nothing. What do you mean by vegetation, and by this specific thought of God? For me, he will say, I easily understand that there is in what we called Seed, a shortened plant which has branches each arranged in its own way, represented in different ways; & that there are also in the juice of the earth, parts figured in an infinity of different ways, which being set in motion by the universal movement, & being pushed by the gravity of the air, those which are of a figure proportionate to the branches of the plant pass through it, and insisting on clinging to these particles, they make a successive increase. This is what I call vegetation, and I respond to this reasoning that I do not understand it, and that it is against the experiments that will be shown later; since the movement of vegetation will be proven by facts where the plant in shorthand can no longer be assumed, any more than its branches and its particles, figured at the discretion of modern Philosophers. For example, the ground grain of wheat, and passes through the sieve into flour, and above all this soaked with boiled water, is in this very disfigured state, and consequently its parts are in a representation far removed from being able to make the same movement that they should have made before all this rustling, & all this upheaval of lines, & figures . However, we still find the same action of Nature which is in the whole grain, when it makes its vegetation in the earth.
On which I note with many others, that this Philosophy, in wanting to explain by sensible demonstration, things which cannot be demonstrated, when we name it. Is there anyone who does not understand what we call vegetation; & after that we want to explain ourselves sensibly, it is said, by imagined words which all revolve around arbitrary suppositions, at least very questionable if they are not completely false, as the above experience shows. show me. It is therefore in my opinion poor Philosophy to want to attach too curiously to knowing things which cannot be known, instead of assuming them as they in fact are, without worrying about how this is happening, we could on this foundation bring Physics to something good , & real which could satisfy.
Vegetation.
I stick to the general notion that we have under the term vegetation, and I understand that it is what everyone calls the movement of a seed, which tends towards a greater perfection than it has. in this state ; let this be done as best it can, I declare in good faith that I do not know, & I believe I am a better Physicist than those who want to say things they imagine, say much less than if they had said nothing .
It is therefore only a question of knowing to what use we must put this vegetation, in Physics to derive utility from it, on which we cannot help above all things to be convinced, that everything which perfects a being , puts it in a position to produce more noble effects than it did before.
Nor will I take the trouble to know how these effects will be produced; for example how Opium will put you to sleep. It is enough for him to fall asleep, he has his end and his destiny from God for that; it doesn't matter how. I only think of putting him in a position to do it well and usefully, without danger and without unfortunate accidents, as Van Helmont says; Fœlix ager cujus auxiliator Medicus novit laetalia à papavere separart. I therefore have no need to resort to corporeal matters, to prove that there are in Nature new movements, or cessations of movements, which had preceded, since the first of all movements, of which we want that all the others depend, do not suppose any matter whose extremities made this first impulse. It is only the thought of God which is not material, which gave this first movement. And I challenge all the Philosophers of the world, to tell me how this could have happened. By Consequently, I find it quite extraordinary that we cannot have the same feeling for all the daily movements, which are and will only be the same continued, from creation until now, & until the end of the world. For if anyone can tell me how the thought of God gave the first movement to created matter without touching it by its extremities, and how the soul of man, which is a pure spirit, and which has not no more extremities can shake & move the machine of the body, as it pleases, even at the discretion of a third party; then he will be able to explain to us how all the particular movements are made ; which, if we delve deeply into the matter, are not easier to understand than the general, and than that of an animated body, since it is the same Nature which acts, and always moves in the same way by a secret science , & infallible independently of such figurations of parts, as was said of wheat & flour, & as we will see the experience in the remainder of this Book.
What vegetation and fermentation are.
The vegetation of beings is nothing other than the natural movement that they make to perfect themselves and multiply their species. And it is only the continuation of the first production of each being, which was made by the virtue of the thought or word of God, when he said once what he says without repetition every day, that the earth produces.
We don't think enough about what is continually happening to us. There is nothing better known in Physics than fermentation: but we do not examine enough what rank it holds in the order of natural things. This word is applied to all effervescences which occur even by the simple mixing of a few opposing liqueurs, as would vinegar with lye, or oil of turpentine, with oil of vitriol, & the like. Natural fermentation taken in the sense of Philosophy is a very different thing from that; this is what Holy Scripture calls leaven.
These words are based on a great principle of Philosophy, and were not said in vain, by those who saw the nature of things so intimately. Because the leaven of the dough is this physical, vegetative or multiplicative fermentation, germ in the ground. It is the same action & the same operation of nature, as we will see in the following mechanics.
Take eight or ten handfuls of wheat which you will put in a vessel, with as much water as is needed, more than lukewarm, to cover it with a good finger, leave this grain to soak for ten or twelve hours, to make it swell. . Pour out all the water by inclination if there is any left, and put this wheat in a slightly warm place, if it is in winter, covering it very warmly, until you see that the grains grow a little. vegetation of a small thread of whitish grass, similar to silk. This is how grain germinates in the ground, this is what is called vegetation everywhere; smell what this sprouted wheat smells like, and you remember it. On the other hand, have some leaven which is also made from wheat, and also observe its smell. Finally, take the same wheat that you have already all germinated, or other if you want, which is not yet, and having ground it, ferment it according to the art, as one does to make the beer, and smell again the smell it will have, you will see that you will not be able to distinguish these smells, and that the germinated wheat, the fermentation of the beer, and the leaven do not differ in any way at all. The fermentation of beer boils, because it is liquid enough to let out the spirits which are loosened from the matter, and which are exhaled through the water, in which they are in movement, and which is incomprehensible. , is that several vessels as large as the one which contains the fermenting materials would not be capable of containing the spirits which come out of them. Which is no small consideration to make on such an action of Nature, which extends, so to speak, in an immense space, what it had concentrated in a point. The leaven does not make such a moving boil, because the dough is not liquid enough to let its bodily spirits out noticeably: but cavities are formed which we notice in good bread, which are the spaces which these spirits had been made, and which they would have extended until they became a passage, if the fermentation of the leaven had been continued longer.
In the grain this effervescence is less sensitive, because the bark can only extend up to a point and after which it opens, both to give passage to its spirits, We therefore see by all these particularities, as much of the smell as of the movement, & of the extent of this seed, that what we call fermentation among the Philosophers, is nothing other than a true and sincere generative vegetation , or degenerative of beings, so trivial & so known to the rudest Gardeners. So that every time we see an operation of this nature, we must necessarily conclude that the matter on which it takes place thereby acquires a perfection at least ten times greater than it had. previously ; & what is to be noted, & yet another sort of proof against the opinion of plants shortcut in seeds , which cannot be here supposed, is that any part of the plant you put in fermentation to increase its virtue. For as without any other seed a plant can be multiplied, either by starting or planting a young stem from a cutting, so by fermenting the juice or leaves of the plants, we still have the seminal virtue & essence. Because the juice of plants is like the blood of animals, which is the vicar of their soul or their seed, sanguis corum pro anima est. That is to say, it has the same effects as the semen of the animal from which it came. We will perhaps talk more about it in its place.
What obviously also proves the exaltation of the virtue of beings through fermentation is the propagation so easy and so rapid that we see things fermented, like leaven to ferment other dough. For if the whole mass of the world were flour soaked into dough, it would take no bigger than an egg of good leaven to leaven everything one after the other, without any diminution of the primary virtue. So much so that it is an infinite action on its part, since it would only cease to act due to the lack of matter which would end, the virtue of the leaven always remaining itself .
Natural solvents.
This gives a very plausible idea of the nature of the unalterable solvent , which Paracelsus and Van Helmont call Alkaest; which resolves everything that we mix with it, without ever altering or weakening, with this difference that the Alkaest acts on all sublunary beings, whether metals, plants or animals, and that this leaven or ferment of which we let's talk, only acts on beings of its kind, either plants, animals or minerals; if it is only that of plants, & However, animals also act on some and on others, as the following experiments will show.
We must therefore make a reflection here which is more important than many Philosophers are convinced; we are looking for a radical solvent in Chemistry, which has the virtue of resolving into raw material, and with that of preserving without alteration the specific form, and the seminal virtue of Beings.
The way and the means to achieve this are none other than fermentation.
This is so well established by Raymond Lulle, and the other great Philosophers, who still give us the example of the resolution of the grain of wheat in the earth, that Raymond Lulle calls it in other places his wine Recipe vinum. It is to make us understand that this wine, and this natural and radical dissolution, is nothing other than fermentation , of which we have just spoken, and without which we will hardly be able to prepare Essences, nor make Animal or plant remedies, which have a distinguished goodness.
It is therefore obvious that wine for Raymond Lulle is nothing other in the plant kingdom than the fermentation of the Simples, of which he wants to make the Essences, and it is still certain that this fermentation or this wine is something of analogous to the solvent, which must be used to radically dissolve metals. Thus it is a fundamental reason in Physics, which makes it call the matter of its solvent wine; since we see that the multiplicative corruption, or dissolution of the grain in the earth, is a true fermentation, like that of beer and natural wine.
It is also a Physical corruption, which Philosophers call their dung; the Philosophers' Stone, they say, is found in dung . There is only discretion at present to know that this manure is not that of animals nor that of plants; but that it must be a mineral and metallic dung, and a fermentative and natural corruption of the same kingdom, lapis Philofophomm reperitur in sterquilinio; because without this fermentative corruption, the aurific seed can never be exalted to multiplicative perfection.
The Gospel speaks in the same sense as the Philosophers; & Jesus Christ the Master of the World, telling us himself that the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, teaches us that to become better, & more perfect, which we must become.
And to give us a more sensitive comparison, and to make us understand that the exaltation of Beings, is only done by the same action that happens on earth in death, resolution, putrefaction, and fermentation of the grain of wheat, this great Master of Nature & Philosophers describes this operation to us, when he wants to instruct us of his Resurrection & glorification which must only follow the resolution, & fermentation of his Divinized Humanity: Dissolve this Temple, he says, I will reestablish it . Solvita Templum hoc, & readificabo illud. (Dissolve this Temple, and I will rebuild it.)
But he declares more distinctly and more formally the manner and action natural to his Divine person, from which this glorifying perfection must flow. The hour for the clarification of man has come, venit hora ut clarifictur filis homnibus; & without interruption of speech, he continues: If the grain of wheat falling into the ground does not die, it remains alone; but if it becomes dead, it brings forth much fruit; nisi granum frumenti cadens in terram mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet si autem mortuum suerit; multum fructum affert; to make us understand that without the prior operation of a fermentative death, clarification cannot occur. The leaven of eternal glory is charity.
Here then is an explanation as just as it is natural, and as significant as one can bring to show us, that the operation of leaven, which takes place in the earth in death, or the fermentative resolution of the grain, is the natural movement, without which we cannot hope for multiplication or exaltation, nisi granum mortuum suerit manet; and that on the contrary, once this operation of Nature takes place, the multiplicative perfection of virtue necessarily follows, fi autem mortuum fuerit, multum fructum offered. We can boldly speak like this, after Jesus Christ first said it; & this is what should give us an admirable idea of everything that happens in an action as trivial as fermentation, in which it clearly appears that corruption, dissolution, fermentation, vegetation, sublimation, exaltation, clarification, are all the same thing, in the true sense of the Philosophers & of Nature & in that of Holy Scripture itself, which serves us as another invincible authority to support the reasonings of our Philosophy.
I know that Van Helmont, difference between the fermentation of grain, from which beer is made, and that which takes place in the ground when it germinates; because, he says, beer gives brandy, which was produced by the action of leaven, and the grain which germinates does not give any.
I answer that this difference is only accidental, and that the reason why there is no brandy in the grain which rots in the ground is that it is not dissolved in enough water. humidity to sufficiently extend the spirits which develop by the action of the ferment; whereas in beer these same spirits are extended and retained in the water, from which they are subsequently separated by distillation; on the contrary, these spirits finding themselves concentrated in the bark of the grain, they become corporified with the germ, to which they serve as food, and as vital spirits of its kind. In beer it is not possible to corporify the germ, because of the great diffusion of the materials; also there is no embryo to nourish, but these same spirits who had served there, continue to form there with all the perfection and nobility that they should have to carry out the multiplication, & exalted vegetation of the plant. These spirits are what we call, Water of life, in all fermented materials of the vegetable kind, because in the animal kind, and the mineral kind, these kinds of spirits are of another nature.
It is therefore quite clear, from what we have just said, that a plant being well fermented, its juice which is its blood, is reduced to raw material by a natural, non-violent Physical resolution, and that consequently the spirit of wine which will be obtained will be a natural & homogeneous solvent, to extract the essential virtue of the plants of its species. This reasoning is all the more certain because all the Philosophers say that they would know how to dissolve them gently, without corruption, and in the same way as the grain is dissolved in the earth into its first material; what we have shown to be nothing other than a true & natural fermentation, like that of wine & beer, by means of which we extract the radical & homogeneous vegetable solvent from each species of plant. But to make this solvent perfect, it is necessary to add the volatile salt of what remains after the separation of the brandy so that the integrity of the plant enters into the composition of this same solvent, would not be added, it is certain that this Eau-de-vie contains in itself the greatest and best part of the salt, because it has been volatilized by fermentation, as well as the essential oil of aromatic plants & this oil in these plants is all, or almost, resolved into brandy by fermentation, since there appears almost none in the dissolution of these fermented plants which would yield a lot if fermentation had not preceded, although they had been macerated for as many days in the same quantity of lukewarm water, without adding leaven, & if after fermentation, there remains some oil, it is because it is not was not done well enough; nevertheless in this case it mixes and dissolves totally with the spirit in the rectification that we make of it, so that not a single drop of oil appears anymore.
However, it is not that we should believe that these kinds of plant solvents resolve the leaves or stems of the plants that we put in them; but they extract the dye, taste & odor of plants: in which according to skillful Philosophers consists the virtue, & the essence of things, when they are extracted by a solvent of the same nature
About the different ways of preparing Simples.
However, there is still a difference to be made in the way of preparing the Simples, as well as in that of using them, because the hot Plants which we call Cephalic, such as Rhue, Rosemary, Sage & others odoriferous herbs, give a lot of brandy, because they abound in volatile salt and essential oil. Cold plants, on the contrary, do not produce brandy, because they have no essential volatile oil at all, of which brandy is composed of salt volatilized by the same action of the ferment. ; In practice, we will distinguish between the use that should be made of it, and the particular way of using it.
Vulnerable plants, such as Comfrey, Brunelle, Sanicle, Periwinkle, Scordium, Bugle, Lungwort, Coltsfoot, & others of this nature, give very little brandy, which shows that their nature is not not so volatile, & that even brandy is not always good in vulnerary potions unless it is well steeped; & consequently we must seek their balm & their virtue in what remains after the distillation of the eau-de-vie. It is in this remainder that the marrow essential of these Plants lies in a way which differs as much from simple ordinary decoctions as a dead man differs from a living man, because, as we have said, the ferment has opened & vivified beings & put into action their seminal principles, which were as if dead, and so bound and embarrassed before, that they could barely give marks of their presence; hence it is that ordinary Remedies appear, as I said, so weak and so languishing after common preparations which are not sufficient; but the way to make an excellent vulnerary essence is to dissolve its evaporated residue in the consistency of electuary in unrectified brandy.
From the fermentation of Animals.
As for Animals, although it does not appear so clearly that their dissolution is of the same nature as that of Plants, it nevertheless takes place by a true fermentation, which only differs in that it is a distinct genus. , and if we give it all the reflection that the thing deserves, we will see that it is the root of natural action, because Nature is one, and consequently invariable in the simplicity of its movements. So that vegetable leaven is a sufficient agent to put their ferment into action, as we said of the dough: also it is not without reason that Moses, who knew better than any other Philosopher the Nature of ferments of the Beings whose formation he first described to us, forbade mixing leaven with the blood of the Victims offered to God; non immolabitis super fermento sanguinetm victimae; because leaven being nothing other than a seminal & vegetal movement, which is exalted to carry out a digestion or transmutation of the juices which make it united, & to assimilate them by perfecting itself, it would alter this blood , & would introduce into it a foreign seed, which would at least make it degenerate from its simplicity, & animal perfection, in which it was to be offered to God, as an Animal buried at the foot of a tree would degenerate in its nature & nourishment, by the strength of the vegetable ferment; besides that the sacrifice of animals and their blood is established to signify the mortification of the flesh and blood of the People; & on the contrary, leaven is a symbol not only of corruption & alteration, as we said; but it is moreover a movement of generation & real multiplication, which is opposed to the mortification of the flesh that the sacrifices express.
This is why it was ordained, that if anyone ate leavened bread during this time, he would be punished with death & cut off from the People of God; as wanting to make animal flesh & blood vegetate against the intention of the Mystery & the Sacrament of the Law, which represented a spiritual life & vegetation without corruption of bodily leaven.
There is yet another remark to be made about this place in Holy Scripture. She said nothing without a mysterious foundation of intrinsic truth; & we do not notice it for lack of good Philosophy. When Moses, by the order of God, commanded the People to eat the Paschal Lamb, which was the figure of the Virgin Body & Blood of Jesus Christ, He ordered not only that fermented bread should not be eaten throughout the octave of the Ceremony, but he also forbade anyone to eat anything of this Lamb that was raw or boiled in water, and ordered that everything be roasted over the fire.
The mystery of this ceremony clearly indicates to us the formal nature of leaven and the action it has on Animals, as on Plants, which is to give a movement of natural plant and animal generation, of which this mystery signified the mortification . Because we had to prepare ourselves for a new fermentation & vegetation or spiritual regeneration, which had to be communicated to us by the fermentative operation of the pure & chaste Body of Jesus Christ, which the Paschal Lamb represented.
This is why it was necessary to abstain from anything which marks, or could bear the character of, animal fermentation & propagation; & this is why the Lamb had to be roasted and not boiled; because by roasting or grilling the flesh, the naked fire, which Philosophers call the tyrant of nature, burns & consumes the fermentative virtue of Animals, just as roasting extinguishes the vegetation of plants.
Whether we sow afterwards and cultivate the seeds of plants as much as we wish, there is no longer any hope of germination. But far from the fermentative virtue being extinguished by the broth, the fermenting juice and the seminal spirits are retained and preserved there; & they operate there like flour in that of Beer. This is also why meat broths and decoctions turn and sour easily. On this same principle, & for these same reasons the same Law of God prohibited the use of foul Animals. Their seminal principles were too strong to allow themselves to be completely defeated by the ferment of human digestion. And as Hippocrates says perfectly well Quod intrat in corpus aut superat, aut superatur, the strength of their own ferment not allowing them to be completely transmuted by ours , there remained a leaven of animal vegetation, which aroused in the The man of bestial morals of his species & his kind & fortified the summit of original sin. The writing bears witness to this, saying: Ne perdere volueris eos qui pecudum mores habuuerunt. The same thing did not happen through the use of the flesh of Animals which were called Worlds or Pure Ones; because all their leaven was overcome by the superior leaven of humanity; provided that the blood had been separated from it, which was no less forbidden than all the substance of foul Animals, because the blood of Animals being the substitute for their semen, it contains a perfect, seminal & vegetative ferment, which, as I said of the juice of plants, produces the same effects as the seed; & which in the time of the Law was stronger than the ferment of human digestion. This is what the Theological Philosophy of Moses teaches, saying, that the blood of Animals is the Vicar of their soul, and that their soul is in their blood; Sanguis corum pro anima est; anima corum is in sanguine. And it is for this same reason that the blood of goats, pigs, hares and such other foul animals has effects in medicine that the blood of world animals, such as that of sheep and oxen, does not. And this obviously proves that the blood of goats and other animals of this strength preserves, despite the ferment of the human stomach, a seminal leaven of its species which acts on the nature of man, and gives to our blood a particular movement which alters the simplicity of its species, for which Moses wanted to provide. It is the same thing with the milk of Animals. Because we must not believe that that of a Cow or a Sheep has the same effect as that of a Goat or a Donkey. So it is not without reason that Hippocrates ordered Cavalle milk more often than any other.
But we have nothing at all to fear in the Law of Grace; because the nature of man being exalted by the participation of the virtue of Jesus Christ which strengthens our good morals, it dominates over the ferment of bestial inclinations, and overcomes that of pure and impure Animals, worlds and filths, Jesus Christ even to Saint Peter in the explanation of the dream, where the scruple of eating forbidden Animals was lifted from him. I will not dwell further on theological matters, having spoken at length in a particular treatise on the principal mysteries of religion, which I will perhaps give to the public.
How Putrefaction occurs.
To return to my subject, and move on to more sensitive considerations : I say, that it must first be noted, that no fermentation can take place if the air does not cooperate with it. Because, whatever some Philosophers may say, the first solvent in the world resides in the air. And it is constant, as it is demonstrated without doubt, that there is a universal, invisible & insensible spirit which is corporified & specified in all genera, in all species & in all individuals of the sublunary world. This spirit is capable by itself, alone and without any Art, of dissolving minerals, plants and animals, and of uniting and specifying itself with them, becoming one with all, without it being in its simplicity , neither animal, nor vegetable, nor mineral.
This proposition is universally received throughout practical Philosophy; & it is based on sensitive experiences, which I am willing to deduce without which perhaps we would not be sufficiently convinced of what I am praising; because the prejudice we have by bad principles, which are established neither on any Art, nor on any experience, gives to an obstinate person just as much boldness as is necessary to contest realities, of which he does not has no knowledge. The fact is therefore to show that in the air there is a universal spirit, which unites with all things, and which is incorporated with Beings and resolves them and reduces them to their first matter by succession of time.
We see quite often that a dead animal corrupts & rots & because the cause is invisible, we do not pay attention to where it could come from. It is with this corrupting & separating spirit, with which the air is animated & filled, which penetrates into the center of the deepest caverns of the earth. This fermenting spirit always operates relentlessly . And when the seminal & vital Spirits of Beings are alive, more active & stronger than it, they unite with it & they are as if animated, supported & vivified by it.
active works on them & prints on them, like leaven does on the dough, a ferment of natural resolution by virtue of which the Bodies are decorporified each in its own way. We see this operation on rocks and on old walls, which dissolve and melt into apparent dust, but which contains the true essential substance of stones, bricks and earth, which is reduced to a salt that everyone calls of Saltpetre. All you have to do is wash this dust, you will find this salt in the water which will have washed it. And the rest of the earth or dust which has not been dissolved in water, being left in the open air in an unenclosed place, will after a while give new Saltpetre, until all the earth has been all resolved by this universal spirit in a simple salt as we see it. The stony body mass is thus destroyed & decorporified, melted & resolved into a substance soluble in water. And this substance having acquired a taste of salt which it did not have, becomes distillable, combustible & saltpeter, the effects of which are so surprising & so opposed to those of a brick & a stone, of which it was nevertheless formed by this one universal spirit. And what is a lot to consider is that if we observe how much the earth from which we obtain the saltpeter will have weighed, we will find that it will not equal the weight of the saltpeter which is produced from it.
But when we want to excite the action of this marvelous spirit, we will only have to water the lands with the spirit of Nitre, and we will have a ferment much more exalted in strength, after which the resolution will advance as much in strength. a month that she could have done in a few years.
So that, as we said about flour, or dough, a pound of Saltpetre would be capable of making the entire mass of the world successively resolve into Saltpeter, if it were of this nature. This is how the countryside is fertile by the resolution of its surface area in nitrous matter, which is the principle of fertility. And this is also why we must cultivate the land, so that it is permeable to air, and so that this spirit penetrates it more deeply, and melts into nitrate and vegetable juice, what was not previously possible. not before.
It is for the same reason that the rain fertilizes the earth, as the Plowmen say. Because penetrating further, been impregnated to communicate it to the earth; thus the rain enters into composition with the earth to form this salt by the sole action of this invisible spirit. Which at the same time, & by the same operation thickens the water & subtilizes the earth, to compose from the union of the two a simple salt, which is the next material & food of all plants . This resolution of earth and stones is in good Philosophy, a rottenness of these kinds of Beings, as we said of the Animal. It’s their dung; & the same vital & natural action of the grain of wheat in the earth, & of the fermentation of beer & wine. Any difference that can be noticed is only accidental; as I have shown in different ways what happens in the grain that germinates, in the dough that rises, and in the beer that boils. It is thus with the Animal which swells by the fermentation which takes place in order to rot it; & finally it is the same movement of the stones which is pulverized by the action of the same engine, although there does not appear to be any effervescence to those who do not look so closely.
It is, however, very truly true that there is a swelling of the stone and the earth similar to that of quicklime, which fuses as it swells and swells, until it takes up much more space. In this swelling the invisible spirits evaporate like those who cause a bubbling in wine and in the water of beer; without which water they would not be sensitive, any more than those of the Lime which fuses, & those of the stones which rot into saltpeter by the same fermentative operation of this universal & divine spirit, which according to Moses was carried on the waters & on the wing of the winds.
Several experiences of the action of the spirit of Air, & different means of fermentation.
It is not enough to have seen that plants, animals, and vegetable earth, as well as stones which are not of a metallic nature, all participate in this ferment and are all subject to it.
But we will see that all sublunary Nature is subject to its action; and that no operation takes place except through the mediation and influence, and even through the mixture of this admirable spirit, which is corporified in as many ways as there are different magnets which attract it after they themselves have been formed from it.
This is the Cosmopolitan Doctrine : Aér generat magnetem, magnes vero generat vel facit appavere aerem nostrum: Est aqua roris noftri ex quà extahitur salpetrae Philosophorum quo omnes res crescunt & nutriuntur (Air generates a magnet, but it generates or makes magnets to brighten our air Philosophers in which all things grow and are nourished).
In the third trip that I made to Rome, when Monsignor the Duke of Chaulne, my Patron & my benefactor, did me the honor of taking me with him to take care of his health in his last Embassy; I went to Silvena to examine the mines of Vitriol which we call Roman: and I saw on the places that were taken from several caves a material which appears like Clay or blackish potter's clay, which has very little taste. If we put this earth recently taken from the mine in water, although boiling, it does not produce any Vitriol. To have some, we put it under furrowed halls about two feet thick and wide; & we leave it in this place covered from the rain, under a simple roof, without any fence all around, to allow air permeability. After a while this earth heats up by itself like horse manure; it smokes in such a way that if we did not store these furrows (as we do wheat in a granary from time to time for fear that it will heat up and germinate) the fire would start there, as at Mount Etna , & like at the Solfotar de Pussol near Naples. So that by stirring it from time to time, it dissolves & rots completely & is reduced to Vitriol.
Is this not again the same operation of the grain of wheat, whether it germinates in the ground or in the attic? Is it not the operation of the Animal which rots, of the stone & the earth which resolves into Saltpeter, & here into Vitriol, because it is a matter & a mineral matrix? Is it not the dung of which the Philosophers speak, which is found in all Beings and in all kinds of Nature by the action of this divine, unalterable, eternal, tireless Agent, who becomes everything with all things? ? Animal with Animals; vegetable with plants, stone with stones, mineral with minerals; & finally metal with metals. Are the Philosophers therefore wrong when they say: Spiritus intus agit totamque infusa per artus meus agitat molem, & toto se corpore miscer. And does Hermes speak in Enigma, when he assures that, qod est superius idem est ac quod est inferius ad perpetranda miracula reis unius. But so that we do not believe that there is imagination in these experiences, and so that we know sensibly, all the subjects of the lower world, by which it is specified & individuated: I will still report a few experiences which will make it seen very clearly.
The first is rock salt which is extracted from the ground in Poland.
Etmuller, speaking of fossil salt in his Commentary on Schröder, says that when it is taken from the earth, it is molasses; & that it hardens in the air after it is out of the mine, but that as it hardens it increases in weight so prodigiously that four pounds make twenty. So that what one man carries coming out of the mine, barely five men can carry it. We cannot say that it is simple humidity in the air which gives this weight. Because this Salt would be softer & more humid, instead of on the contrary it becomes harder & drier, becoming heavier. Where can this extraordinary superabundance come from? Except for this general and universal spirit which unites with all things, becoming with them what they are, taking on all tastes and all shapes without having any.
The second experience is that of the Calcination of Antimony by the fiery mirror, in which sufficient heat is produced to soften the Antimony without melting it. This is why we are obliged to stir it constantly, lest it bind and collect in lumps, as it would after exposing it in powder form to the fire of the mirror. In this operation the Antimony smokes a lot, and as much material is exhaled as when it is calcined on hot coals; however, instead of decreasing in weight, as it does on the fire, it increases so much that we find it heavier than when we put it there; not to mention everything that has evaporated. Where does this weight come from, communicated by a celestial heat and fire, which is not made by any material that we can suspect of having united with the body of Antimony? Can we deny or even doubt that it is an invisible spirit which has become corporified, and has become Antimony with Antimony? But an igneous spirit, to which we cannot give the name of any sensitive matter which nevertheless becomes a body as compact as calcined Antimony, which vitrifies after that rather than evaporating. He has no taste in this operation, because Antimony has none, although it takes as many different ones as are all the Salts with which it unites in their formation.
Here is a third experiment which is done in another way on two different subjects. It is by means of water instead of fire. This shows the incomprehensible action of this Proteus, who acts uniformly with all the Elements; provided that it is in open air, and not in closed vessels. This one is on real metals.
Put iron or red copper, in filings, in a flat wooden or earthen bowl: expose it to the vitriolic Sun of the Heatwave; sprinkle your filings with water to moisten them only on the surface, without it appearing as if moisture is sinking to the bottom of the vessel; on the contrary, the less water the better, provided only that the filings are a little moistened. Let it dry in the sun; being dried, sprinkle it again with new water, and having stirred everything, let it dry again, continuing like this all day for two or three weeks. All the metal will turn into rust, which you put in boiling water, and it will dissolve. Filter & crystallize according to the art, you will have a particular Vitriol, into which we cannot say that any corrosive has entered. Vitriol, however, has a very harsh taste that iron and copper do not have in themselves, nor the water with which they have been moistened. Where does this salt come from which penetrated these metals, and which made them dissolve in water? Which in the calcination of Antimony described above has no taste, but on the contrary has become a fusible & vitrifiable mineral.
Distill the Vitriol of Venus in the ordinary way, street lamp fire: A spirit passes through which does not have the burning acidity of the oil of vulgar Vitriol, but it has a taste approaching saline, & it passes through this distillation a lot of volatile salt, which crystallizes at the bottom of the vessel quite white & quite hard. The caput mortuum remains at the bottom of the blackish metal retort, which breaks like a regula. Which being left for some time in the air attracts the spirits and reanimates and becomes again a beautiful greenish blue, which can be redistilled in this way more than once after this resuscitation in the air, as the first.
It is true that the caput mortmm of all Salts & Vitriols attracts the universal spirit and is reanimated by it, after which it can be redistilled several times; but the caput mortuum of other ordinary Vitriols does not attract the universal spirit so quickly or so copiously as this one.
resuscitation or regeneration in the air, give volatile salt if they are pushed to the last degree of the fire.
Here are many ways in which the universal spirit acts on sublunary bodies which all come back to this single principle that this miraculous spirit is the first Agent of the world; that it has entry and action on all Beings of whatever kind they are; that he penetrates them all; that he opens and resolves them; & that it also unites & incorporates itself at the same time with all; taking different forms & figures, according to the specification it receives from each Being to which it is united & confermented.
And these are the essential conditions that all Philosophers demand for their radical solvent; the main one of which is that it is homogeneous with what it has dissolved, and that it becomes so united with it that it can no longer be separated from it. So it is most certainly from this universal source that the philosophical solvent must be drawn. It is only a question of the subject and the magnet which must be used to corporify this spirit: and it is easy to see by the enumeration that I have just made of so many different subjects, in all the sublunary kingdoms, that There won't be one he doesn't influence. There is only this difference, that some must be treated by the very simple air, like the Vitriolic Marcassites, of whom I have not yet spoken; which themselves, by the action of the universal solvent, calcine, pulverize, unsolder & vitriolate, without addition or aid of any means; like the look of Roman Vitriol of which I spoke, & many others; & even like wheat in a granary, which germinates alone if it is not prevented. For other matters a means is needed, and that is water; others need fire; & there are still others that must be helped by other means so that the universal spirit has penetrated into their center, and that they also become a powerful magnet, capable of attracting it superabundantly and more copiously than they need it for themselves.
I will give the following example for further proof of the means which are sometimes necessary to excite the magnetic virtue when it is too fixed and too dormant. Take three or four ounces of Common Sulphur, well sprayed or sublimated into flowers; pour over it five or six times as much weight of spirit of Saltpetre & distill all the spirit over light heat, without pushing harder than in the bath of sand. Cohob the mind nine or ten times on the Sulfur in the retort: then this Sulfur being put into the air attracts the mind, & determines it to the nature of the Sulfur oil, in such a quantity that these four ounces of sulfur then give by distillation two ounces of spirit as strong, and which has the same qualities as that which is made by campane. However, two ounces of spirit could not be extracted by this method from four or five pounds of Sulphur; instead of this, four ounces of prepared Sulfur give two ounces of spirit each time and always serve as a magnet to attract new ones over time. What is still to be noted is that the spirit of Nitre which was used to make this magnet has not at all changed its nature or strength , and that it remains as it was when we started with it. served, fit for all the purposes to which it could be employed.
Is this discussion not broad enough and well established enough to persuade the less skilled and less experienced of the perpetual action of the universal spirit which I rightly call the Mercury of the Philosophers, since it dissolves everything, & that it unites with everything by an inexhaustible, tireless & permanent action; elevating Beings to a much nobler & more perfect dignity through the communication of his superior spirit, which makes all nature perfect. After that, I should not be considered ill-favored for having spoken of fermentation, although the books are full of it; because everyone will admit that we have not seen this matter treated as it is explained here; so it would be useless to repeat what so many others have written.
Continuation of similar experiences.
On these principles I understood several years ago, that what Paracelsus & Van Helmont call the first Being of Salts was nothing other than this same spirit & universal solvent corporified in the simplest of all sublunary Salts, which is like a seminal & immature Salt Embryo. Which is not found in itself in Nature, but which separates itself from the body of other salts, like their nucleus, their heart & their center, which separation can only be done by the action of the same universal spirit, which Incorporating it with this Salt, decorporifies it & makes it incoagulable, whatever it comes from sea water.
be led by Art. Because it is not enough to know how to do it to have learned the method, without having the knowledge of the principles, and we do not acquire it by having seen a temporary manipulation carried out whose natural causes we do not know from yourself. It is a rather curious thing in the first preparation of this Salt, to see the different shapes & the different tastes, which are born from the sea water before being reduced to a state where it no longer takes on a shape.
Then there remains a raw, non- crystallizable incoagulable material, like thick, fatty water with a fiery taste which always attracts the spirit and the humidity of the air. This material thus resolves into a very heavy oil, distillable over a sand fire, provided that one has the required patience, because it swells more on the fire than would honey that one would like to distill. After the distillation of this oil, there remains a caput mortuum fusible like wax, which passes through Art all in spirit & in volatile Salt, without the need to mix in any interlude, either Bowl or Clay which would only spoil him. So that all the substance of this Salt passes into liquor & this is no small consideration to show that it is brought closer to the universal Nature of which it is composed, as we have seen of rock salt.
After this, it seems that we no longer need to ask where the saltiness of the sea comes from: since we clearly see that it is only a sensible corporification of the universal salt of the world, which is invisibly diffused throughout all nature , & which resides in the entire vast expanse of the air, where it is generated & maintained by the light of the Stars. All the great Philosophers after Trismegistus have taught this Doctrine: but because they have not proven it, as I have just done, mediocre Philosophers have considered such a proposition as a Metaphysical vision, which has been ridiculed. , although it is essentially true, & founded on the invariable principles of Nature.
I am very happy to confirm this experience with another that I made on Vitriol. I have already said that Vitriol is not found in mines and that the mineral matter from which it is made is not a salt dissolved in water. We can still clearly see this by the stones or marcasites, of which I spoke, which are found in clayey soils.
Nature to have a simpler & more animated dissolution of the vitriolic body of the general spirit. For this I took on the spot a thick, blackish fatty water which remains in the boilers after the last crystallizations or coagulations of the Vitriol. This water is similar to what is called the mother of Saltpetre; we throw it into Silvena, where Roman Vitriol is done, because we don't need it there.
But in the mines of Dauphiné which are close to Tin, where I also went to examine them, we preserve it, and we use it to water the vitriolic lands. As the Saltpeters pour their seas of Saltpeter onto the nitrous lands, it is a leaven to more quickly advance the melting, the resolution & the corruption of their lands, which we do not need in Silvena, where the mine resolves quite well. of herself ; In their language they call this leaven Ricotta, that is to say the water which remains after several annealings.
I therefore reflected that this mother water of Vitriol was a leaven on vitriolic lands, as the mother water of Salpêtre is a leaven on nitrous lands; that this leaven or mineral ferment only came from the corporification of the leaven or universal ferment, which was determined by the mine to its nature to act on its gente; & consequently that we could incorporate more of the spirit of the air into this mineral ferment, & make it more active by the exuberance & concentration of the same ferment or general solvent. In such a way that the spirit obtained from it by distillation could be a natural solvent of metals to reduce them into vitriolic salt, without any corrosion, as we see that the spirit of the same water of Saltpeter is a leaven & radical dissolver of stones and marble itself, which it reduces to their distillable raw material, that is to say in Saltpeter: so that this stone and this marble which has no apparent quality of salt, nevertheless becomes through the leaven from this spirit a niter salt, pure & perfect, from which we obtain a nitrous spirit, like the ordinary one. And it should be noted that the ordinary spirit of simple niter will not do this resolution or transmutation of stones into distillable nitre, but that the spirit of sea water distilled and prepared for this purpose is required. This made me think, resolution of stones in stony raw material. Because finally, it seems that it is the same operation of Nature, and that it only differs in the specification, since we see that Vitriol and Saltpeter are also produced in the same way by Nature.
So I took some of this Vitriol mother liquor, - I had a hundred pints of it - I filtered it & evaporated it over low heat, until a film, then I put it in the cold for four days to make the vitriols that were still there crystallize & I repeated this work until no more crystallizations appeared at all in my water. So I again evaporated it over a low heat, until by putting a few drops on a slate and letting it cool, it appeared to have the consistency of hard honey, which did not flow; I put it in this state in several small flat vessels, to let it freeze in the cold; & afterward I carried them into the cellar leaning on their side with another little vessel beneath, which received what was resolved in the air, like Salt of tartar, leaving thus until all was resolved. At the end I still had a few crystals left which did not resolve, which I separated as useless for my operation. I again filtered the water which flowed from day to time through the gray paper, in order to have it very pure and more impregnated with the general spirit than the first time. I repeated these coagulations, resolutions & filtrations so many times that there were no more crystals or terrestrialities left on the filter, which happened on the sixth or seventh time. This work lasted at least six months, and gave me thick, black water so oily that it could not pass through the filter, unless the paper and the linen which supported it were well wet beforehand.
I distilled this water gently and very carefully, because of a swelling that it makes like honey. This swelling is so easy that it is almost impossible to prevent it without extreme patience, such as that which I had, having spent eight consecutive days gently governing a fire of sand, for fear that the material would disgorged through the neck of the retort. The distillation being done, the bottom of the caput mortuum was a ruby red which threw sparks like molten gold, with which it appeared to be filled, & the top was a pearly white, bright & flaky like talcum powder, & as if sprinkled with oriental pearls. The caput mortuum, whether it was distilled over a simple fire of sand, or over a streetlight fire, had no taste, just like earth. I pushed the street light to get all the spirits: After which, having exposed it to the air, it soon regained the same taste it had. I poured its distilled spirit onto the dead head , and having redistilled them, I extracted a new spirit from it by the street lamp in ten hours, which was no longer acidic and corrosive like the first, but tending to be salty. This second caput mortuum was reanimated again in the air & this continued until four times, that I had the curiosity to follow this experience. It even appears very clearly that this attraction was not ready to end; I suppose that it must have an end, which does not seem to me to happen as long as there is caput mortuum left. Because ultimately it is always lost a little each time, and it will sooner become nothing than it will cease to act and attract the universal spirit.
I did the same thing on the mother water of Saltpetre after having also separated it from all the salts, and then having it dissolved in the air, filtered and coagulated so many times that it does not Nothing remains on the filter. There is this difference between this material and that of Vitriol that the dead head of the mother of Saltpêtre distilled without any mixture, of bowl, brick or clay, remains in mass in the form of metalline, white as milk, from which we draw by leaching a very white Salt melting like wax which dissolves in the humidity of the air much more quickly than does a Salt of tartar. So I had it resolved, filtered & coagulated so many times that no more soil remained on the filter. And so I concurred with his spirit on it, & I redistilled it by a graduated fire according to the Art. I again dissolved the remaining salt in the air, and I continued this operation so many times that all my salt passed with the spirit through the retort.
This animated spirit of the Salt thus prepared, dissolves the gold without boiling, and carries it with itself through the still at a very mediocre fire. And it should be noted that although the spirit of niter dissolves mercury very quickly and very easily and not gold, however it does not dissolve mercury at all. But having put it on mercury, it instantly became black as ink, the Philosophers will make such reflections as they please; as well as on the non-corrosive dissolution of gold, and the volatilization which occurs by the same solvent, which leaves only part of the gold in the form of white earth, which it does not dissolve, any more than Mercury.
I will not speak further about the operation I carried out on sea salt prepared in the same way. The Curious must be given something to do for themselves so that they can exercise their wits and patience, which they will need. I will only tell them in passing that a barrel of sea water yields at most only a pint of mother water after the separation of all the crystals that are taken from it, in what way the curiosity of the Artist is quite satisfied. Because there are hardly any people who imagine that in the mother's water there would be Salts of all the forms that Art encounters there, as I said at first. Which is not a slight proof of what the good Philosophers say that the Salt of the sea, or rather the water of the sea, is the root not only of all Salts, but also of all minerals & of all metals; & that we can therefore rightly call this fatty & igneous water, which remains after all crystallizations , the first Being of Salts & the center of the element of water. Mainly after that by several resolutions to the humid, it is still impregnated with the universal spirit of the world, & carried by the fermentative, corruptive & rotting action of the same universal spirit until the last return to its raw material. After that we distill this material, which we can call with Paracelsus, Liquamen salis; but let it be distilled without mixing a bowl, brick or earth, and let all its salt pass through with the spirit, as I said of the mother water of Saltpetre; & we will see what this solvent will do on gold; & how with the spirit of wine a good Artist will be able to extract from it an oil dissolvable in all kinds of liqueurs.
I have no doubt that many of those who would like the operations to be carried out in an hour will protest against the time it requires; but in this, they will make it clear that they are hardly Philosophers, and that they do not deserve to be told more about it. Because finally, when they see a Plowman cultivating his land to get wheat, will they be angry with him because he cannot bring in his grain in one day? I had the patience to to give the time necessary for such operations on the sole idea that I have formed of them, without having any other certainty of what would happen . This is why these eager Curious people will take the trouble, if they please, to do the same after me on my experiences, then they will exercise their talent to carry their light and their work further .
Let them only remember well what I said so much above, that no resolution, rottenness or natural solution is made , except by the universal spirit, which is in the air, volavit super pennas ventorum. And that what we call fermentation & vegetation is nothing other than the operation of this spirit on whatever matter it may be.
We have another very clear example of this in what happens when fruit rots. An apple, a pear, a grape is pricked: corruption begins; it spreads, the whole apple becomes rotten in a few days. This is what a brick does to a wall when it begins to be pitted, so to speak; its corruption advances, and it is finally completely resolved; after which the leaven of this brick inspires in the other neighboring bricks the corrupting ferment which passes from one to the other, as an apple and a grain of grape corrupt others, and as a little leaven causes another to rise. dough. What I said about the fermentation of beer, which is only the operation of leaven and wheat which germinates in the ground, is the same thing about cider in relation to the rotting of the apple, and of wine that boils in the harvest, compared to grapes that rot. And finally this is the same thing as what happens in the preparation of Vitriol & Salts, of which I spoke.
Consequently their spirits can be called mineral spirits since it is the same operation which makes them so volatile, and as different from the raw & coarse spirits of ordinary salts, as that which makes the eau-de-vie differ from wine, beer & cider, spirits distilled from these same unfermented materials. If you want to keep fruit longer, you need to protect it from air. And if you cut into the skin even a little, as soon as the air has entered it, its spirit will immediately work there, and the fermentative corruption will manifest itself by which the spirits of the fruit and the essence are set in motion, to break free from the mass of the mixture.
Therefore it is the real way of nature, to separate the Philosophical & natural solvents of all Beings. Because these spirits separated from the compound retain the fermentative virtue that the mixed had ; as we said of a rotten apple which rots another , and of a nitrous brick which corrupts the one which touches it. But with this difference that as these spirits or essences are separated from the mass of the mixture by the Art of good Chemistry, also these spirits do not make the same movement, which did the entire mixture fermenting on another mixture; but these essences or spirits only attract the intimate essence of bodies of their species, leaving the body devoid of its soul, by which this essence is animated, the rest being no more than a corpse deprived of its seminal Life & its fecundity.
The proof of what I put forward is very easy, because although the Brandy is of a different species from the seed of cabbage, melon, lettuce , it will still have the effect on these seeds, because it is of the same plant genus. But such a strong brandy made from the same seeds would do even better, like that of beer on wheat or barley, from which it will have been made. Here is the proof: Soak a handful of wheat in a pot of good rectified brandy, made from the same grain of its kind, this brandy will attract the vegetative essence of the grain in such a way that if you sow it, it will no longer sprout; Gardeners who are not Philosophers say that the germ of the grain is burned by the Water of Life, which is not true. On the contrary, if you put a lot of grain and a little brandy the grain will soak it; because the stronger wins the weaker, and this grain will germinate much more vigorously and more quickly than it would have done; because this Water of life which contains the vegetative essence of the grains from which it was made being imbibed by this grain it strengthens its fertility, & gives by its ferment a more rapid movement to the grain which is impregnated with it, like the leaven which makes rise other dough. The same gardeners still know how to do these promotions very well to bring forward the fruits and vegetables they want to have before their season. But they also know very well how to observe not to add more brandy than is necessary, so as not to deanimate their seeds which would not germinate; & they are aware that as long as we put rectified brandy on seeds, dominates attracts the essence which is of its nature. This is why, in order for the seed to remain the mistress, it is necessary to extend & weaken the Water of Life, adding common water to it. And so the grain which imbibes this humidity only finds a quantity of Brandy proportioned to the strength of its stomach, so to speak, whose fecundity is fortified by that which is in the Brandy.
It is on this rule that Philosophers speak of their imbibitions to bring about the resurrection and reanimation of the dead heads that they want to volatilize; they little by little give them back the minds or souls that they had separated from them by a copious and dominant affusion.
The Correction of Violent or Poisonous Medicines.
The experiments are a proof which does not seem indifferent against those who assure that the seeds consist only in the representation of the plant in shortcut & that the vegetation is only an attachment of new particles which increase the volume of those which form the Plant in its seed. Because we see that the Essences of which we have spoken, and the simple Water of Life itself, contain within themselves a principle of fecundity; whatever disturbance there may be in the shape of the Plants from which it is taken, and that the affusion of this Brandy on the grains makes them sometimes fertile and sometimes sterile without making any change. Will it be easy to believe, if it is by disturbance of parts that vegetation is destroyed, that what is capable of causing this disturbance produces exalted vegetation incompatible with the same disturbance?
It is for this reason that it does not matter whether the wheat is whole or not for the movement of vegetation, since either it is in the ground in the ordinary arrangement of its parts, or whether it is pressed & ground into flour, upset & mixed into dough, or even more, soaked in a brewer's vat. The same natural effect & the same vegetative movement appears to us noticeably & independently of whatever representation it may be of the parts which broke it.
Considering everything we have just said, it is not difficult to see how we can put into practice what Van Helmont said about the correction of Medicines, either which are too violent, or which have some obvious venom. This venom means that we dare not use it without great precaution, after which even one does not stop trembling; because common & ordinary corrections do not do not touch the center of Being nor do they separate the essence from the excrement in which only poisonous virtue consists and not in the seminal essence which is absolutely good.
It is therefore the lack of maturity and the embarrassment of the excrement which causes the venom; and the greater and more active it is, the more we must also judge that the Virtue of the mixed is greater and more notable; because the activity of the venom follows the greater or lesser affinity that the essence has with our nature, since it is constant that it only acts because it has union and interaction with our spirits. Which union or unibility necessarily supposes suitability, affinity & synonimity of Nature, & consequently goodness of this Being in relation to ourselves. So that the experience we have of its venom is a manifest conviction of the excellences it contains: Ubi virus ibi virtus.(Where is the virus there? virtue)
It is therefore a question of separating these malignant excrement which are attached to the essence & which through this intelligence & secret notion of nature which passes our knowledge, follow it when it unites with our minds. It is a mission, so to speak, emanating from the gift of Creation, which we cannot penetrate. God made such a herb with a suitable proportion, which makes it find its way to the heart, the brain, etc. It is enough that she goes there without me knowing where or how, and it is not a little that her venom makes me know that she has her destiny from God to go to this or that viscera that she attacks from the wrong side. After that it is up to the Philosophers to mature & perfect this Being, & to separate it from its excrement, then the essence which through this preparation remains in its vital integrity & unaltered in the idea of its Being, will make a good part what God intended her for. So that if it disturbed the brain before preparation, it will only serve to strengthen it and firm up its faculties.
These are experiences about which I can speak as a Master: since after having prepared the most poisonous Plants, which because of this are of no use in Medicine, I took the first one myself without having any felt no alteration; although having only touched a few unprepared ones with my tongue , I thought I was poisoned.
plagues of Nature, instead of, as Van Helmont says, “it is where the deficiencies of the love of God are contained. » We know with what concern, for example, we propose to give Opium; we are only too well informed of the misfortunes that cause them to happen.
Often after the safest preparations of the ordinary pharmacy, a single grain can have caused the death of patients. If this is so, is there a more present & more concentrated venom? It therefore appears that this correction or preparation is not the best, and that it is misleading, because it is not based on true Physics, which only looks at Beings in their seminal principles, hence fluent all their properties. However, is there a remedy in the nature of the Simple, which has a virtue so noble, so familiar, and so sure as Opium when it is fermented? From then on we see the success that can be expected in dispositions which often seem so opposite, that one would say that there would be an intelligence in this remedy, to do what is necessary; although sometimes it is necessary to do what must sometimes be prevented.
This is what made several of the most skilful Physicians say that if there were no Opium, they would not want to practice Medicine. In fact, it can be usefully applied to almost everything, when we know how to use it well; because when Nature can regain calm in an illness, we have gone more than half the way, and often without any other remedy it does alone what suits it, and what a Doctor could never predict or understand , & even less to procure.
Now this Nature will never produce these effects, if it is not juris, and in tranquility; she cannot do it on her own, she is too agitated, she is bound, she is defeated. We wisely apply a suitable dose of well-prepared Laudanum, and instantly calm comes as if by a miracle, nature returns to its rights; spirits that were troubled regain strength; we sleep, we sweat gently, we no longer suffer from pain; it is a kind of magic that an atom produces , so to speak, often given alone, or sometimes accompanied by other appropriate remedies. Hippocrates ordered it so frequently that there is nothing so familiar in his Works; so I have only noticed three circumstances where he does not do well. The first & main, it is when there is a disposition to lethargy. The second in Venerian evils, which have an icy venom & numbing; & the third when there is an abscess.
Remarkable Napel experiences.
To confirm the idea I have of fermentation and the effect it operates in plants, to the point of extinguishing and dissipating their venom, according to what Van Helmont learnedly says, omnia fimplicium venena prorsus filent, cum in entia prima redierent (everything is completely poisonous when they returned to the first beings), I am happy to describe the experience I had of it. His Highness the late Monseigneur the Prince was astonished at the mere account that I had the honor of giving him in some conversations that he allowed me to have with him. I therefore wanted to experience on myself the effect of the greatest Poison found in the vegetable kingdom: Napel. Here is the story. Herbalists say that if it is only held in the hand for a considerable time, it is capable of killing. I took a handful, and a few moments later, it caused me a tingling sensation that I felt pass from my wrist to my arm. And as it had already advanced to the elbow, I threw it away for fear that the venom would go too far, and that I would no longer be in control of it. This numbness continued to extend to the shoulder, and did not pass further. It lasted me all day without any other pain; I immediately used my Essence of Vipers, of which I will give the composition later , & the next day I no longer felt anything. Once, I took a flower of this Plant, and having chewed it a little with the first teeth I touched it with the tip of the tongue to observe the taste, and to see if it would have any effect approaching what 'says Van Helmont. He says that having tasted the root with the tip of his tongue after having lightly prepared it, he felt his whole head engaged without having his imagination offended, on the contrary, he felt it as if freed, and much more capable of intellectual functions that he had never had; I therefore believed that the flower of this Plant was a kind of preparation and natural maturity, which would have a less poisonous quality than the root which Van Helmont had tasted. And as I found that the taste was quite sweet, this gave me a good omen of its intrinsic virtue: a moment later, I felt a tingling at the tip of my tongue, which obliged me to spit to stop the action of the juice & tincture which acted so sensibly.
To confirm the idea I have of fermentation and the effect it tongue, which forced me to wash my mouth with brandy. Immediately afterwards I felt my head held tight and as if tightened by a blindfold without any pain, my heart seized and as if bound without any weakness, and all my limbs half asleep. This lasted me some time; however, I observed myself, and I actually felt, as Van Helmont says, a much greater freedom of spirit and intelligence than I had ever had, so that this disposition was not felt by me. not unpleasant, feeling very well that I would not die from it. I understood from this that the action of this Plant is to act on the organs of the imagination, that it frees it from matter, and that it gives freedom to the mind to do something more than that. he is not capable under the mass of blood and flesh which offend him. And that Van Helmont is not greatly wrong to say, est etiam in plantis arbor fcìentia boni & mali, & virtus dotalis continens sana mentis redintegrationes (it is even in the plants, the tree contains the faculties of good and evil, and the gifted virtue containing the healthy mental reintegration).
To confirm the idea I have of fermentation and the effect it After these experiments, I did another on the same Plant. I took everything, roots, leaves & flowers, I pounded a hot one, I fermented it . I then tasted it; I drank a spoonful of this wine, and it had no numbing action on me. I distilled Eau-devie from it; I had two rectified pints of it: I used it to drink in the mornings like ordinary brandy, without it ever having any noticeable bad effect on me.
After all these experiences & these trials, I do not believe that the critics of the Philosophers can find reason to quibble against what I have established to prove that fermentation is a natural corrective of venom & Simples & Medicines.
I am not unaware that there is another way of reducing Plants to their first Being, and in a way entirely different from the fermentation of which I speak, and that this other method perfects them even more than this, but it is enough that I have made known the truth of what I have put forward and the good use that can be made of it, while waiting for another to say more, if I do not do so perhaps myself over time, depending on the justice that the Public will do to the service that I am willing to render to them today.
Leavens or Ferments.
I come to Practice, & I explain in a natural way the method I use.
All Chemists know that leaven is needed to ferment materials that do not ferment on their own.
naturally, as is necessary to make beer & to make the dough rise. But although every vegetable leaven ferments another vegetable, there is nevertheless a difference between leaven and sourdough. It must be considered that all leaven is a vegetation of its own species and that consequently leaven can alter the nature and essence of another species with which it will be mixed; like an ente which is fermented with the trunk on which it is joined, from which it comes mixed fruits which participate in both species.
Italian Bergamots are proof of this. They have the shape, color and smell of pears; & when you cut them, it's the inside of an orange. Because the orange & the pear being fermented together by the mind, their vegetation, which is a real fermentation, is mixed & consequently participates in the qualities, virtues & properties of the two species.
I will say in passing that this is the reason why God through Moses forbade in the ancient Law to bury trees, as well as to sow mixed seeds in the same field, because this causes a corruption & degeneration of species, which symbolizes with original sin & corruption of the flesh. It is spoiling & changing the Idea of the Creator.
It is therefore necessary in the fermentation that we want to make, that there be no degeneration, if we want the virtue of the Simple not to be altered, and for it to remain in its pure and natural seminal Being.
Otherwise it will not produce the effect we should expect. Just as a pear tree on which apples have been planted will no longer produce pears; or at least it will make a monstrous fruit, as I said of Bergamot, or like a Mule which is neither Donkey nor Horse, and which does not have the simple and perfect properties of either one or the 'other, but who confused the two together. This is no longer what we seek in such a case and for such an end in Medicine, where one virtue is required and not the other.
From this, it appears that baker's, beer, wine and cider leavens are not suitable for making perfect things. Because these Beings are specified & have particular virtues which they communicate to the one we want to ferment. We therefore need a general leaven which receives the virtues of the species, and which is determined by them without altering them on its part: & which being thus determined by the particular Plants with which it is mixed, increases both the virtue and the quality all together.
Honey has this effect; it is of this nature, because it is only a universal spirit of the air, such as we depicted at the beginning of this Book, which is corporified with the dew which falls and which attaches to the flowers , herbs, leaves, & other subjects where Bees collect it without being totally specified.
It is a beginning of mixing of the superior Elements with the inferior ones of Heaven with the earth, which in their innermost and in their center do only one thing according to Hermes: quod superius idem ast ac quod est inferius ad perpetuenda miracula rei unius (which is the same as above it is and that which is below to perpetuate the miracles of one thing) . And this Being, although composed of the Elements, still has no perfect specification, until it is animated & impregnated by particular seeds. It is therefore a beginning of corporification & coagulation of the spirits of air & water which unite in the lowest region of the air with the Vapors of the earth, which communicate to it this first creamy coagulation, which serves as food for plants, and which gives them the first movement of fertility.
This is why Basile Valentin uses honey vinegar much more readily for the extraction of his salts, and honey brandy for that of tinctures, than vinegar and ordinary wine spirit. In fact, honey is a universal spirit, not yet completely determined by the vegetable kingdom. Which uniting with the Plants or with the bodily Niter of the arable land, produces vegetation of this kind, which adapts to all individuals and all species, without altering or corrupting them; on the contrary it nourishes them, strengthens them and animates them.
Likewise in an artificial fermentation, Honey does with a Simple, what Dew would have done in the ground with it. Since Honey is nothing other than a thick and more cooked dew than that which flies imperceptibly in the upper air.
Manipulation On this principle I start by fermenting honey, like when making Mead. For this I dissolve honey in water, one weight of honey to four of water; & I hold this dissolution in vessels which I place in an oven in Summer as well as in Winter, maintaining the fire there day and night with a stove or furnace which is in the middle of the oven, the degree of heat being such that one can remain as long as one wishes in the Stove without being inconvenienced. After two or three days without needing any foreign leaven, the dissolution of honey begins to move; & when it is in good fermentation, that is to say after a day of started fermentation, we add the well chopped & well pounded herbs, one bucket out of two of honey solution, & all mixed well together. It is left to ferment until the herbs fall to the bottom without rising again after they have been muddled & pressed for the last time.
This is generally the way to ferment & prepare plants, herbs and roots; & particularly those which have volatile Sulfur or Oils & Salts, such as they may be. After which fermentation it is necessary to distill the Eau-de-vie with a refrigerator, as if one were distilling wine, putting all the material in the still, juice & marc. The distillation having been done, we rectify it, more or less, if we wish; if the fermentation has been well done, there appears no volatile or essential oil in the distillation of Aromatic Plants, although they have it in abundance; because the ferment loosened its creaminess & reduced it to Brandy, which is a true oil or sulfur, united with the Salt & volatile Mercury of the plant. For it is a fact that the three principles are united together by the action of the ferment, so that although the Salt fixed with the other principles remains after the distillation of the Brandy, we can nevertheless make beautiful things without adding the fixed salt. But it is also true that if we volatilize it, and combine it with its brandy or spirit, we will see a much nobler effect.
However, this simple brandy must be considered after rectification as a homogeneous & natural solvent of the Plant of its species.
So that if you put flowers, leaves or tender stems, crushed or not, into this Brandy, to infuse for a few days, it draws out the soul, the sulfur, the tincture & the life. Which can replace, for Medicine in some way, the volatile Salt, although, as I said, the perfection is not so noble nor so effective.
Way of making the real Water of the Queen of Hungary.
This is the way in which this famous Water of the Queen of Hungary must be made , in which no spirit of vine wine must enter,
This is the mystery that the inventor hid by ordering a simple infusion of Rosemary flowers in wine spirit; we must understand the spirit of Rosemary wine, as the true natural & homogeneous solvent of its own flowers, from which it draws the essence that it unites intimately & in a much more perfect way than the simple spirit of ordinary wine, which is not of the same species, and which consequently weakens its specific nature, which on the contrary is strengthened by the spirit of wine from the same plant, which makes the best part of the remedy.
It is the same thing with Rhue, Lavender, Imperatory, Wormwood, Hyssop; finally of all aromatic plants and those which abound in volatile salt, such as Watercress, Arugula, Bécabunga , Celery, and all diuretic plants. Their virtue is infinitely exalted by the exuberant volatilization of their salts, and we see the effects infinitely greater than when we use them either raw, or in decoctions and ordinary preparations; either for indoor or outdoor use. As in Rheumatism, wandering pains, coldness & numbness of the limbs, and finally to everything that is particularized in the book of Quintessence by Raymond Lulle & other authors; with this particularity in external use, that the essences are much better if we add a third of a spirit of armoniac salt.
As for Cephalic & Aromatic herbs like Rosemary, Sage, Rhue & others, they are assured febrifuges as Van Helmont says, sunt diaphoretica insigna non nihil temperata, quae mendtentem fidelem nunquam ludibrio exponent. For putrid ulcers and gangrene, as well as for bruises, however deep they may be; my Water of the Queen of Hungary works a kind of miracle, steaming them several times a day for a considerable time, in order to make its action penetrate; because all the rot and gangrene disappears in twenty-four, and the bruises dissipate , without ever going to suppuration. It will even be difficult to believe that the blood extravasated under the skull, by some blow or some great fall, always remains fluid, without ever coagulating , and flows through the nose, through the eyes and through the ears; provided that in the first twenty-four hours after the blow or fall, the entire head is thoroughly drenched with it, after shaving; repeating from two hours to two hours.
From which we see what admirable resolution this Simple is capable of making, even blood coagulated in an extravasion. It is true that essential or ethereal Rosemary Oil alone also has the same effect; but even better, if it is dissolved in equal weight in very rectified essence.
It is this same essence of Rosemary or true Water of the Queen of Hungary, which the King was kind enough to use and bear witness to the success and relief that Her Majesty received from it in Rheumatism which occupied her shoulder and arm , from the time she did the honor of my colleague and me by establishing ourselves at the Louvre to carry out all these experiments.
But as in fevers, it is always very good to temper the action of these febrifuges, so that a feverish person is not too heated, I always mix a dose of my Laudanum which is also diaphoretic in itself & I only give the Remedy on the decline of the fever, after the great violence of the heat and the attack has already been tempered. So that we then see a gentle and moderate sweat, almost always accompanied by a sweet sleep which refreshes the patient beyond what one could believe. So much so that we hardly see even quartan fevers, which do not stop at the third or fourth attack. And when they seem too stubborn, I add half a glass of Quinquina decoction to each dose as a vehicle; & for now I don't miss any, unless some complication arises.
Remedies for Vapors, Menstruation & Childbirth, &.
For women's vapors the above-mentioned Cephalic Plants & all Hysterics; like Melissa, Matricaria, Tansy, Mugwort, and above all the Sabline, the little Centaurea and the Rhue perform a kind of miracle, the same to procure the suppressed periods, & to facilitate childbirth and its retained consequences , on which occasions we see assured success, which bloodletting and other usual remedies almost never produce, especially if a little of my Cinnamon essence is added . The ordinary vehicle that I use, both for fevers and for women's illnesses, is wine for people who can take it: and one should not fear the heat of the fever, because Laudanum provides for it.
common, have a singular effect, applying them internally from below, as all Doctors know without explaining it further. There is only this distinction to be made that a certain plant does good for a woman which does nothing or very little for another; so we must observe for each person that which is most suitable for them: Rhue, Sage, Rosemary, Melissa, Matricaria, Mugwort, etc. But the tincture of Succin drawn by the rectified brandy of these Plants makes their virtue more general.
The fetid oil distilled from the same Succin, both taken by mouth and applied from below in anointing, often also has such great effects that I have seen women and girls who have been totally paralyzed for several months being cured. by this one anointing Oil; because it was only a uterine paralysis, for which all the remedies that had been done had only served to make the evil worse .
This same fetid oil distilled from Succin has another very singular virtue by which I have saved the lives of several women, to whom some part of the Placenta remained after childbirth. The anointing of this oil, made ad os interiam uteri, gently facilitates its dilation, even a few months after childbirth; & gives a skillful surgeon the means to extract everything that should not remain there and that would be fatal. These are experiments that I have had carried out several times, and of which I am guarantor, to which I add a last one on this article about women, with a remedy which is universal. I learned it from Van Helmont: It’s gall and the liver of vipers; or failing that, those of Eels, of which a few repeated doses the size of a Filbert, in powder form, seem to work a small miracle for all kinds of uterine vapors. But their more specific property is to facilitate the most unpleasant deliveries and to extraordinarily reduce pain with the same dose taken at the start of labor.
It is important to note that to better distinguish which Plants are more suitable for this or that person, it is necessary to know that these Vapors almost never come except after some violent passion. And according to the type of passion, a particular species of Plant is required: although after the first insult, all the other passions excite & awaken the movement of the Vapor.
specific, as with all the accidents which follow it, whether Fever, or whatever it may be. For sorrow it is Sage & Melissa & so others, which we will find marked in Van Helmont in Chap. of Conceptis, where I refer the Reader so as not to repeat what has been said by another more skilful than me.
I will only add one thing that he did not explain enough.
Secundina, he says, masculi primogeniti is a universal remedy for the Vapors of women, but he does not say the preparation. Here it is: It is necessary to put it in pieces in a long-necked matrass and having stopped it well with cork and wet parchment, keep it in digestion until all the material is reduced to water, as happens infallibly in thirty or forty days. When everything is well resolved, we put it in a cucurbit in a bain-marie with its capital & the container well lute & we distill until dry. This is the universal remedy for all uterine conditions. But its rarest effect and which is all the more estimable since we don't see anyone who knows it, or at least who practices it, is to stop instantly, as if by a magical operation, the pains and the trenches that women suffer after giving birth.
We know that except for the first child, all women suffer more, or at least as much, as in work itself, and for much longer . We don't know if anyone is looking for any remedy there, I willingly give it to the Public; like those of the oil of Succin & the galls & liver of Vipers, with which each used properly, there will be almost no untoward childbirth. This proves how wrong those who argued that the gall of the Viper is one of the greatest poisons were. I gave it successfully, & I took it myself first to feel the effect, both separately and in conjunction with the liver. But let us reflect and admire that this last Remedy, that is to say the afterbirth of a first born male, taken in the quantity of a spoonful, or thereabouts, does not has no perceptible effect whatsoever that one can imagine; except that in the moment these cruel pains cease without any other movement & everything else takes an infinitely safer course than Nature could have done without this help, which at the same time provides the natural evacuation which must follow women's diapers.
Let us judge from there what influence this remedy has over the movements uterine; & what effect it must therefore have in all kinds of Vapors & hysterical passions. I remember reading in Plato that the wise women of his time knew how to stop the trenches of women after childbirth. This remedy was lost, I am bringing it back to life today, whatever some bad reasoner may say, who will perhaps maintain that it is dangerous to stop the movements of Nature in such a delicate situation; & that unfortunate accidents could happen. I will answer him that there are many ways to govern Nature and its movements; & that those which have as their guarantee happy successes without any accident or reproach must always be esteemed the best. It is this science which distinguishes the good Naturalist & the true Physician from the Charlatan & the Empirical.
I will further say that it is not absolutely necessary that it be the afterbirth of a first born male; I saw the same effect with a second born. However, as I have great faith in the Author, and there are also some natural reasons which seem to give more strength to the first-born, I am of the opinion that it would be even better if another. The delivery of the first child, not being followed by any trenching, it is easy to understand that this remedy is more effective in providing pacification of the uterus.
This is said outside the System of Plant Fermentation, & only on occasion of hysterical passions; but always in the order of the plan of my Book whose end is to describe my experiences in relation to the service that I wish to render to the Public
Distinction of Manipulation
Although fermentation is a general preparation for all vegetable materials , there is however always a little Art & distinction depending on the different subjects. The Gums have some resinous things difficult to dissolve in water which could embarrass a mediocre Artist in their preparation. I will explain Opium in the way that is suitable for all others, such as Gum Ammonia, Sagapenum, Scamonea, Galbanum & the rest.
So I take a pound of Opium which I rub hard in a stoneware terrine where there are three pounds of common water, continuing thus until all is reduced to mud or silt with the water dissolving at the same time what is dissoluble. And having fermented in my oven three pounds of honey with twelve pounds of water, I warm what is in my terrine & pour it into the vessel where my ferment is (it is a long-necked glass jar which I use for this) and although what is loamy does not dissolve at first; however the action of the ferment resolves it & purifies it over time & this excites a much stronger broth that Honey alone would not produce.
When the fermentation is finished, I distill the Eau-de-vie in a refrigerant; it has the smell of Opium and you can use it like that if you want; because the harmless virtue of Opium is in its oil alone. This oil being volatilized and becoming an inflammable spirit, all virtue is concentrated and exalted there, not only by the maturity of this fermentative and vegetative operation; but also because this brandy has a subtlety that fatty oils, which do not penetrate the membrane of the stomach, would not have. Besides that this spirit is freed from the filth & earthly matters in which the malignity of the venom consists as well as in the crudity. Hence it happens that ten, fifteen, twenty, forty or fifty drops of this eau-de-vie have an effect so sweet and so sure that we never see any accident happen, in the place that we have often seen , as I said before, that a single grain, even when prepared in the ordinary way, has killed sick people. And although I am not so scrupulous about giving it by weight or by measure, I have never seen any untoward accident.
We even know in the patient's pulse such an extraordinary difference from that found in those who have taken Laudanum vulgare, that a very experienced Doctor would not believe that a patient had taken anything of this nature. Especially since this Laudanum does not necessarily cause sleep, since many who take it do not sleep because of it, although they feel the effects of freshness, sweetness and tranquility that one should expect from it. So that if we sleep, it is more a natural need than a dominant determination of the Remedy. From which we see what help it is in Medicine. And I am sure that Doctors who wish to use it will, in time, learn about it as willingly as their patients.
However, I do not leave this Eau-de-vie completely pure: but to make it more perfect, I filter what remains in the Alembic, with its non-rectified brandy, so that the phlegm dissolves the salt and the tincture of this residue, after which I filter a second time through the gray paper, and I keep this mixture as a more perfect Laudanum; because the Salt of Opium being sudorific, the union with its volatile Sulfur produces a nobler & more excellent medicine. When it is time to add a Cordial I mix in a few drops of proprietary elixir, essence of Vipers, or essence of Cinnamon prepared in the following way, which will serve as an example for all Aromatic woods , which have spiritual oil . & essential.
Preparation of aromatic woods
I therefore pound cinnamon into a subtle powder, which I pass through the sieve & I put one pound out of four of honey in fermentation, as I said, with twelve pounds of water: then when I distill in the refrigerator, no essential oil comes out, as it does in ordinary distillations of cinnamon, after having been in maceration in water for as long as the fermentation lasts; but all this oil turns into a very pleasant brandy and very sweet in taste and smell; which I perfect by rectifying it & then infusing it with new coarsely pulverized Cinnamon from which it obtains a Ruby tincture & an admirable taste.
This essence of Cinnamon does not need praise, the less skilled know that it must be one of the most excellent cordials, Stomachic & Cephalic that there is in the Simples, & one of the most effective Remedies for pregnancies & for women's childbirth & their aftermath; especially when it is combined with essence of Rhue or Melissa, as I said above.
My Property Elixir is made in the same way as Cinnamon & Opium, except that there is no need to make this last infusion, because it is colored by itself like a tincture of gold, when it is well rectified and without phlegm, because of the abundance of volatile oil contained in Saffron, Myrrh & Aloe fermented together of which it is composed. It is in this volatile oil that the virtue of this great Remedy consists, whose penetration and action are surprising in desperate illnesses , mainly when it is given one hour after giving the Emetic, in Apoplexies or Lethargies. , or it hardly fails to bring back speech and judgment. It is another marvel for women in childbirth, for sexual diseases , for slow, malignant, purple & pestilential fevers, for small pox & several other ailments.
However, it must be observed in the preparation of this fermented elixir that it produces a lot of very spicy volatile oil; & that it is necessary to continue the distillation in the refrigerator until no more of this oil comes with the phlegm. After which we rectify everything in a sublimatory vessel with a long neck, and the oil rises with the spirit united together and the phlegm remains at the bottom, provided that we do not push the fire too much. Because if phlegm is passed, the rectification will become milky, and the oil will separate from its spirit, which will fall to the bottom, and will force the Artist to make a second rectification, just like the essence of the Viper of which I I'm going to talk.
Preparation of the essence of vipers
The essence of vipers which is made by the same route has made enough noise in this world to have excited the Curious to seek its preparation, without having been able to discover the mystery. To understand this well, you must remember that I said that the rotting of a dead animal was a real fermentation, like that of wheat in the earth, that of wine in barrels. And it is to be noted that there is such a great Analogy between the leaven of Bakers and the rot of an Animal, that ordinary leaven acts on human flesh in the same way as it does on dough. , when there is some provision on the part of Nature. Thus it is for this reason that leaven applied as a poultice on an Abscess which wants to rot, is one of the most natural agents there is, to excite this movement, in which matter resolves with a Physical resolution by which the Spirits and volatile salts are released from the mass, as brandy is from plants.
But it is necessary as much as possible to prevent in this preparation of Animals that there is any bad odor, as we have seen in ungrateful Essences, which suffocate instead of invigorating. This comes from a lack of knowledge, in which I missed the first one, because we don't know everything in one day. It must therefore be observed that this execrable odor only comes from an impure and too raw phlegm, which is in all the flesh of animals. And as he has not yet matured enough, are the vital balm. And therefore, it is an excrement that must be separated before preparing it. Because if we leave it there, it will stink up all the essence by fermenting with it; from which it is not possible afterwards to disunite it.
The method is neither difficult nor painful. All you have to do is dry the flesh of the animals over a very low heat or in the sun, until they can turn into a powder that is easy to pass through the sieve: then you will no longer find any bad smell. in the Essence.
Perhaps I will be told that the best and most subtle minds of the Animal will be lost through desiccation, and consequently that its work will be spoiled. To which I reply that all those who have distilled Animals, whether Vipers or any other flesh whatsoever, have clearly seen by their own experience, that no spirits come out at all until they sufficiently feel the fire to burn them. Before this degree of heat, only phlegm comes out, which has a raw and unpleasant smell and taste. However, this heat is much greater than that which we say must be used to dry the flesh before preparing it to extract its essences. So we have nothing to fear on this subject. Besides that we see by experience that we do not have a lesser quantity of Essence & Volatile Salt from dry flesh than from those which do not. I know what I'm saying and I'm not afraid of being contradicted, because I've done both more than once . And it is not a small thing that I explain myself so naturally, without reserving the mystery for myself, and giving myself distinction above those who will want to work after me on my experiences, as well as several others who have reserved a sleight of hand to make themselves necessary & to be sought after like the Masters.
It is therefore necessary to put three or four pounds of viper powder, or of any flesh you wish, which is very dry; with three times as much weight of honey which is in good fermentation in the oven, and leave to act until the end of the broth. When it is finished, it is necessary to distill, thoroughly muddling the silt which will be at the bottom, like pus before putting it in the distilling vessel; which must not be made of metal although tinned, because these spirits dissolve Tin and Copper, which spoil everything.
But this operation must be carried out in long-necked glass vessels two feet high if possible. And having very well lute the capital and the container, distill over a fire of sand as long as the material boils in the vessel, which must only be filled up to a third because of the swelling. We will see, contrary to the ordinary way of the distillation of all flesh, that the Spirits and the volatile salts will rise first and before the phlegm. These Spirits are so penetrating that it is difficult to prevent them from piercing the edge of the junction of the vessels. This is where skill & patience are also necessary.
When all the Spirit & the volatile Salt are distilled, we evaporate until dry in terrines over light heat, what remains at the bottom of the still: then we distill it in a retort over streetlight fire by degrees, to have new volatile salt, & a black & pungent oil; which we rectify two or three times with the Caput mortuum pulverized to purify them both of their earth and their stench. It is even necessary to distill them again over a sand fire, with washed & desalinated ashes, very dry & pasted with the said Salt, Oil & Stinking Spirit, until they are very pure.
For then it is necessary to mix everything together with the Oil; both the first volatile Spirits & Salts and the last; & redistill all this mixture in a long neck sublimatory, where we will have put a few pints of common water to retain the rest of the bad odors, while the Spirits will pass well purified: observing the distillation, as soon as the Salts are dissolved in the capital, to see if the Spirits are still strong enough; so as not to mix phlegm: And you will have an essence, in which the Oil is united with the Salts & the Spirits by a homogeneity of principles; its color is a beautiful yellow, as if it were a tincture of gold, without there being any taste, odor or appearance of brandy or honey; because Honey, for the reasons that we have explained above, of the universality of its nature, is made all with all things in fermentation; mainly with the Vipers, who are only fed on Honey or dew which they lick from the herbs. This is why we keep them alive for years: without them feeding on anything other than the spirit of the air.
Patience is required to carry out this beautiful operation, rare and worthy of being sought after, both to preserve health and life , and to restore the old and languishing sick; it does even better than the Elixir of property in Apoplexies, after Emetic wine has been given. Because if in an hour we give a good dose of this Essence of Vipers we see a wonderful effect to help vomit easily & with very happy success, restoring knowledge & speech meaning allowing the Emetic to remain ineffective, as happens very often. On the contrary, this Essence strengthens its virtue and ensures its success, which is a very important consideration. The experience is famous for the happy success that we saw in the past in the person of Monseigneur the Duke of Chartres, Madam present. This Prince , only four years old, terminally ill, having taken emetics, and had not yet returned it nine hours later; ordinary convulsions arrived; he lost his speech, pulse and breathing; he was finally pronounced dead; However, Her Royal Highness Madam, had previously done us the honor of calling us, (it was at the time that the King had given us the opportunity to place my colleague and me in the Louvre.) We had no sooner had us flow into the stomach of this young Prince a dose of this Essence (which I had not yet brought to the degree of perfection that I give it today) that this child opened his eyes, breathed, cried, spoke, finally returned the Emetic fortunately & found himself cured. Some time later such a thing happened to us in Rome in the person of Monseigneur Cardinal Carasse. He had fallen into Apoplexy, & had taken the Emetic without being able to give it back after a few hours of convulsions, & all the unfortunate consequences that accompany them in these kinds of illnesses, we were called, we gave him this Essence of Vipers in the presence of more than thirty Cardinals & Prelates, who were eyewitnesses as he rendered the Emetic, recovered his speech & judgment & received his Sacraments. The Pope having been informed of this, His Holiness did me the honor of congratulating me, and of ordering me to see other sick people whom he loved and who were dear to him. These experiences are enough not to tire the Reader of an infinity of others, both for this Essence and for all the others that I give to the Public, as badges, each in its own way.
But we have hardly seen an Essence of this kind. I myself worked for many years, before bringing it to the level of such high perfection, those who have worked know how difficult it is to unite Oils with Salts. There will perhaps be no shortage of Critics who will tell us at present that this is easy; but we will regard them as quibblers, until they have shown us a way of succeeding of their invention. That of Silvius is not without comparison so perfect as this one, we can judge by the principles of Physics established above; of which Silvius, who was a very clever man, would not himself disagree. Because without considering the Oil of the second distillation, there is already another more volatile one united by fermentation with the Salt & the volatile Spirits of the first distillation, which passed before the phlegm. So I do not mix this second, more fixed Oil, to make my essence oily, since it already is without it; but it is in order to mix heaven with earth; fixes it with the volatile, & to make in this Essence the mixture of all the Elements, because it must be noted that if I call fixed this Oil & this Salt which have distilled together by the retort, although they are volatile, as the ordinary Viper Salt, it is only by comparison and to distinguish them from the others which have passed in front of the phlegm already all mixed together.
It is no small mystery of the curious fermentation that it makes the manifest separation of the Elements & that it knows how to highlight the different properties of what is contained in the mixed ones which we could never distinguish without this operation . Because who would believe that there are two kinds of volatile salts, two kinds of oils and two kinds of spirits in animals ?
Finally, we know in Nature, without speaking of Alkaest, a means other than fermentation to separate them and make one appear distinctly without the other, which however being separated by such a natural instrument, we cannot prevent us from being convinced that it is a very exact anatomy & a sort of purification & separation of the pure from the impure, more excellent than can be found in the entire Art of Chemistry; & consequently it must be admitted that the union of these principles thus purified & anatomized must create a perfection of Essence incomparable to any other.
It is this Celestial Sun, and this Terrestrial Sun, of which the Cosmopolitan speaks, which is found in the three sublunary Kingdoms; of which the rays united together perform the miracle of unity in a simple essence formed of three double principles; Radii radiis suguntur (Radii radiis suguntur), he says, ad perpetranda miracula rei unus (to perform the miracles of one thing), says Hermes. This must be understood in the same way in the mineral & metallic kingdom, because Hermes & the Cosmopolite spoke in general of all three genres, as it is distinctly particularized in the Emerald table. Habet tres partes Philofophia & thelesmon totius mundi. (He has three the parts of Philofophia & thelesmon of the whole world.)
It is here the same as in the great work, of which the Philosophers have written so much; which they say is composed of male & female, superior & inferior, of which the inferior is their Mercury composed in its simplicity of a Salt, a Sulfur & a Mercury: And the superior is their Sulfur also composed of its part of a Salt, a Sulfur & a Mercury. It is the same, I say here, where we see the inferior or the female, which is the mixture of Salt, Oil and the less subtle Spirit; & the superior or the male, which also has on its part its composition of Salt, Oil & Spirit, which are incomplete & imperfect one without the other.
This is why they must be brought together and married together; like Mercury and Sulfur of the Philosophers, which come from the same root; & for then we have a complete, entire & perfect Essence for the support & prolongation of life.
It is easy to judge that the wine of Raymond-Lulle, of which he speaks in so many places, is not something far removed from this.
Because we know that vine wine is neither animal nor mineral; & that we must understand by this word (vinum) a vinous action of each kingdom, which makes its Brandy & its Tartar in its own fashion; which must be united by volatilization.
This is what we find by experience in this operation on Animals . Which being corrupted by a fermentative corruption, natural and not cadaverizing, gives before the phlegm of the Spirits and the volatile Salts which make the Water of life of this kind, and the true vital Spirits; & others after phlegm which are Tartar or volatilized fixed salt.
The same Raimond-Lulle has sufficiently indicated this operation in his book of Experiments; where he speaks of human blood & putrefied urine , from which he draws a volatile salt, with which he animates his eau-devie: what should be understood, non secundum syllabas sed secundum sensum (not according to the syllables but according to the meaning), says the Cosmopolite.
speak. And although this is not yet what the Philosophers understand for Metallic, we can nevertheless admit that this idea is not at all unreasonable: and that it is a great perfection and deputation of these kinds of Beings, beyond of those who have them written in the vulgar books that we have in our hands.
We can thus prepare any other type of Animal like Vipers, and extract the perfect Essences from them. These would be foods all spirits of anticipated digestion, which would not only make up for the weakness of the stomach; but also which would animate it with other ordinary foods to perform more usefully and more perfectly the functions which are prohibited to it by old age or by illness. And it would not be a mediocre help for the help of the Infirm and the Elderly: because there is the same difference between these essences and the flesh from which they are taken, which we see between wine and grapes, since as we have shown , these Essences are properly a true animal wine of the nature of our vital Spirits.
Sentiment of Van Helmont concerning Fermentation
But to return to the preparation of Plants by fermentation, & to show that I am not speaking from my head; although I do not like to bring up quotes: I am happy to make here an extract in Francis of what Van Helmont taught us about this doctrine in his Treatise which he calls Pharmacopolium ac dispensararium modernorum. Never has an Author had more credit among clever people. Because we have never yet seen any book of this kind, of which there have been five editions in less than forty years. There is almost no Doctor who has not read it, although we put so little use to what he left us that is very practicable, and that is so authorized by science. We only focus on to the Enigmas of the great mysteries of this Author, which appear impenetrable, and this causes us to neglect what he teaches that is easy and common. I admit that what I write I took from his Book, and I hold it from his Doctrine. But it was made much clearer and almost familiar to me thanks to the work and experiences I have had for more than twenty-five years.
This is as much savings for those who have not worked; & I am convinced, superficial without experience. Their Mathematical demonstrations which have no weight here only give them bad prejudices based on a System diametrically opposed to that of all the ancient Masters of beautiful experimental Physics, who joined practice to science: Moses, Hermes, Geber, Hippocrates, Plato, etc. And among the Moderns Raymond Lulle, Basile, Valentin, Rupescisa, Paracelsus, the Cosmopolite, our Van Helmont, & several others recognize, & know how to highlight & in motion the vital & vegetative principle of the least vegetative Beings , without which there is no There is no considerable perfection to be hoped for in Nature.
It is with this idea that the famous Author of whom I am speaking, said in the Treatise which I have cited speaking of the Simples, that their preparation requires not only sprays, & decoctions familiar to Apothecaries, but all the science of Chemistry. We should therefore not be surprised, he continues, if the science of the Simple has remained deserted. It is to repair this great negligence of men that it pleased the Almighty to raise up Chemists capable of meditating with reason on the means of bringing about the transmutation, maturity, tincture and perfection of Beings; as one thing out of all necessary. The author adds: This is why they tried to prepare the Remedies in such a way, that by their purity, their simplicity & their subtlety, which make them symbolic with our minds, they could have entered into the principles of our life, so that if they do not penetrate so far as to mingle with our constituent principles, at least they express their virtue there by awakening our powers; because nature not only recognizes the actions of agents, which pass under the authority, and take on the character of patients, as do foods, which by acting on us make us change in ourselves; but it still recognizes in medicines another authority of agent much more considerable, which is only a communication & a characterization of the natural virtue of the Remedy on the principle of life, as a consequence of the preparations, that the Art made of what was alterable, impure & violent. And this superiority is such that these agents do not suffer anything from their patients, nor are they affected by any reaction: This is why some Remedies thus prepared do, our vital powers, that they thereby make us certain that it is for this reason that God gave birth to them. Others, finally, being freed from the bonds which kept them embarrassed, are carried to higher degrees of perfection; & having acquired the freedom & authority of their powers, they console our afflicted nature, & relieve it from its despondency, in the same way as the deadly Aconites destroy its strength.
After which Van Helmont protests in these terms: But the error of the Schools comes from the fact that they did not think of fermenting the plants; without which the separation of what is good and excellent is not possible. Because I knew after several works & after several expenses, that the materials of the Remedies being raised to a nobler dignity by the preparation, rise to a degree of perfection, freedom, subtlety & purity which infinitely surpasses all decoctions , all the syrups & all the electuaries of the Pharmacy: because we give them without having made the separation of the pure & the impure; & without having untied the virtues which are clauses, without them having any root or participation of life or vitality without any correction of the defects, the crudities, the excrements & the venoms, the activities of which our nature can only support with a lot of alteration. It is therefore necessary, through early work and diligent care, to spare the languishing stomach the fatigue of this digestion; if we want the Remedy to respond pleasantly to the success we should expect from it.
Then speaking of Venoms, he said: “I adore in every way the immensity of the Creator's clemency. He did not intend for the venoms to be harmful to us, God did not cause death or any exterminating medicine on the earth. But he made the venoms to be converted by us with a little art and study into signal tokens of his love, and to serve men with usury against the violence of naked diseases. There is a secret help in these venoms, which the more benign and more familiar Simples refuse to us, which is why these horrible poisons are reserved for the greatest and most heroic uses of. Medicine. From there comes, let the animals not eat them; either they know the venom which manifests itself through smell and taste; either that some spirit governing beasts preserves these poisons for greater uses; because they possess the noblest virtues. It is enough at least, may the beasts guard us and leave the most excellent Remedies, as by a command from the Most High who has more care of us than of the brutes. » And then speaking of the preparation, he adds: For me, wanting with a paternal spirit to correct the violent fury that is in the Medicines, I understand that their virtues and their primitive forces must remain, and be introverted in their principle; or that they must be transmuted with the preservation of their simplicity into other virtues which are secretly hidden under the guard of the venom, or which are newly acquired by the increase of their perfection. As the Coloquine introverts its laxative & rotting virtue while it leaves from its center a resolving & gentle virtue, which is a very excellent remedy against chronic illnesses. Paracelsus practiced it with applause by his red tincture of Antimony, but hid, or did not know, that the same thing was practiced on all the venoms of plants and animals by means of his circulated salt, because that all their venom is extinguished, when they return to their first being. We must therefore not mutilate or mortify the Simple, who are endowed with these great powers, but we must make them better through Art, by bringing out what was hidden, or by substituting a virtue for it. the other by imperative & victorious Specifics.
I am speaking here to those to whom God has not yet given the grace to taste the power of the great Circulated. There are some of these Remedies which, after having lost their ferocity, are softened by mixtures and become neutral by the fermentation of the virtues which participate in this mixture. This is very far from the recipes that we find in the dispensaries of the shops, which do not give us any improvement or correction, but only a pure extinction of the virtue of the Simple: because their correction of the Remedies is only a useless burden of drugs, which destroys at least the virtue of the medicine, if it does not yet destroy the sick.
The Schools have learned well from Philosophers that there are excellent virtues in the Simple; to whom God: has committed as guardians evil venoms. But their corrections do not moderate their violence; on the contrary, they destroy their virtues. As a result, venoms have a very rapid fermentative activity.
these Remedies; & direct them through minds and through the fermentations of Art to the needs of chronic illnesses, the causes of which are deep and not superficial. So that there is only this one thing to do; knowing how to overcome this great violence, and overcome fermentative communication; what is done as this Author said, independently of its Alka est, by the art of a trivial fermentation; Error Scolarum follows, succos, herharum cum suo parenchimate fermento prius non sougere, antequam optimarum partium selectio fit possibilis. After which we cannot say that this great man did not establish anything for us by unleashing himself, as he did against the current Doctrine of the School.
Everything I have said above about Opium could suffice and serve as proof of this beautiful and great digression by Van Helmont concerning the correction of venoms. I will also add the example of Hellebore, of which Hippocrates made such great use; & which its great violence frightens most of the Doctors of this time. This Simple philosophically prepared according to our method, becomes not only benign, but a powerful Remedy against diseases, which today we call spleen & hypochondria vapors, dizziness, mania & others which alter the faculties of the brain. The way to use it is to dissolve the electuary in its own Water of Life, as we have explained above, to take it several days in a row, according to the prudence of the Doctor and the state of the Patient.
That Spirits are of the nature of the Plants from which they are taken.
I am waiting here for people to protest against the method, which I explain; & let it be said too lightly that fermentation produces Brandy which is filled with heat, & consequently, that all Remedies would be hot, & set fire to the body of all the sick. But I beg those who want to take the trouble to read what I write to do some serious thinking; that these Eaux-de-vies are of the nature of the Plants from which they are made; & that those which are produced from Opium, Henbane, Mandrakes, Solanums , & other herbs which are supposed to be fatal by their excessive cold, become of a temperate, benign & natural freshness.
And that it is in this very thing that the Philosophical & scientific correction of their coldness consists; which this Eau-de-vie communicates by its symbol to heated & irritated minds with which she entered. Whereas without this excellent preparation, which loosens the seminal principles, and which separates them from their excrement, these crude remedies overwhelm the languid stomach, before it has put them in a position to produce the good effect, of which the most scrupulous Doctors have always deemed them capable.
We must therefore not protest against the heat of the Waters of Life & against the system of fermentation for the preparation of Remedies. On the contrary, it is a very sure way to have not only refreshments and temperate remedies which are lacking in medicine, but also warming remedies, which are no less necessary, according to the dispositions of the sick and the illnesses.
Finally, those which are too hot in themselves are corrected by cold ones, and cold ones reciprocally by hot ones, as we have generally noticed. Per adjuncta mitescunt, neutra siunt, assttumptis videlicet viribus participative (By adjuncts they soften, neuter shunt, assttumptis viz). For as the Author says, quoties res singulae non habent intentum adjuctiones subinde admitto, si res suo congressu acquirant, quod in singularitate non habent; quod deinceps experimtnto docente confirmandum (every single thing they have no intention of adjudging from time to time, if they acquire things by their meeting, which they do not have in singularity; which is subsequently taught by experimtnto to confirm). I have practiced it a thousand times by giving Essences of warm herbs, such as Rosemary, Sage, Rhue & others similar, mixed with Laudanum for Fevers & other illnesses, where perspiration & perspiration seemed suitable to me & indicated by Nature.
Invention & composition of Quiet Oil or Balm.
On the occasion of what is noted by the quote from Van Helmont, concerning the mixture & competition of several virtues, which can compose a good Remedy when it is based on the principles of science; I am very happy to once again give the public a very rare experience and very proven by the successes which have made the Remedy famous. It was Butler's Treatise on the Stone by Van Helmont, which gave me the idea; although it is nothing less than this Stone.
I therefore understood by reading this Treatise that the virtue of this potential Remedy, and like magic, contained two excellent qualities united. The first is an innocuous, peaceful, victorious virtue; who by the simple touch imposed and put the natural order in the principles of life, which were in disorder in whatever way it might be; & who by a superior power & authority, returned to the tranquil situation of their regulated movements.
The second quality that I noticed in this Remedy is a singular property of purifying the afflicted organs through imperceptible perspiration . Which necessarily supposed the perfect resolution of coagulations or excrement, which were the at least occasional cause of illnesses, which the mere touch of this Stone cured.
I also noticed a great and remarkable penetration of the Remedy; which often without being applied from within so quickly produced effects that amount to a miracle. From which I understood that there was an invincible affinity between the principles of life & the matter of which this remedy was composed.
Whereupon meditating within myself, I put into my mind what I have already said; that the poisons which are the most active (I do not pretend to speak here of the corrosives, which act only accidentally & occasionally; but of those which operate by the fermentation of their seminal Being:) The poisons, I say, have from them one of the main conditions which are required for this Remedy, the penetration & the symbol, from which the activity comes. Furthermore, among all fermentative venoms , the most rapid are the harmless and soporific, and those which have an action on the faculties of our soul; such as the furious or Maniac Solanum, the Racemasum, the Henbane & the Poppy, which act on Animal Spirits & on the organ of reason itself, which they dismantle. In my reasoning I judged that in these kinds of Plants I found two of the most excellent qualities, with which this great Remedy should be endowed; namely the entry or fermentation with our Spirits; & the rest, the freshness, the calm & an imperious & soporific peace that they carry with them. All I needed was a resolving power to dissipate the morbific materials; after which I would have enough to command Nature and restore it to the tranquility that would be suitable for it.
I immediately thought of Aromatic Plants which have this virtue par excellence, in addition to the consolation they bring in Nature by the pleasantness of their odor, which still has some agreement with our Spirits, and with the activity of the penetration of venoms. . Which even made me augur that this single penetrating odor being fermented with the penetrating Spirit of venom, they would correct each other,
On these reasonings which I had communicated to my colleague; we put our hands to work, and we took everything we could find of poisonous Harmless, Cephalic and hot fragrant herbs: namely Solanums, Racemosum & Furiosum or Maniacum, Henbane, Poppy heads, Nightshade , Tobacco, of each four handfuls; Rosemary, Sage, Rhue, Wormwood, Hyssop, Lavender, Thyme, Tansy, Elderflowers or Hyebles, St. John's Wort, Persicaria, because of the constellated virtue of these last two, a handful of each, all well chopped, well pounded, and well mixed. After which, we boiled olive oil in a cauldron on the fire; The Oil being very hot as if for frying, we threw in handfuls of the mixture of all these herbs, we boiled until they were well browned and crumbly between the fingers. So, we removed them with a skimmer and put them back to drain, so as not to lose anything.
We added other herbs, like the first time, as much as the Oil could cover. We cooked them again until browned, and we continued this way for up to four cookings of herbs in the same Oil, each time putting as much as the Oil could cover. We kept this precious Oil animated, Oils or Sulfurs of all these Plants concentrated together in a particular way. Because it must be noted that the main virtue of all Plants, both aromatic and soporific, consists of their Oils; which are united by a symbolic and natural means, which is Olive Oil. With which they are incorporated into a Remedy so rare and so excellent, that it would be difficult to believe it, if the continual effects and the experiences repeated so many times without error, did not bear witness to it.
When you want to make it even better, you add as many large, lively Toads as there are pounds of Oil, or thereabouts. Which must be boiled as above, as long as they are almost burned in the Oil with which their juice and their fat mixes and greatly increases the excellence of the Remedy without there being any fear that the addition of these Animals if poisonous communicates no bad quality, both for the exterior and the interior, & this itself makes this Remedy admirable against the Plague & all poisonous & contagious diseases.
On the occasion of the Crapauds, I remember having made one an experience as rare as it is curious, which we will not be sorry to know.
Van Helmont says, that if we put one in a vessel deep enough that it cannot get out, and we look at it fixedly, this Animal having made all its efforts to jump out of the vessel and flee; he turns around, looks at you fixedly, and a few moments later falls dead. Van Helmont attributes this effect to an idea of horrible fear that the Toad conceives at the sight of man.
Which through assiduous attention is excited and exalted to the point that the animal is suffocated. So I did it four times, and I found that Van Helmont had told the truth. On the occasion of which a Turk who was present in Egypt, where I had this experience for the third time, protested that I was holy for having killed with my sight a beast which they believed to be produced by the Devil, according to the erroneous principle of the Manichaeans which still reigns among these ignorant people. Another time I did it all the same, and the Toad did not die, and I was not inconvenienced.
But having wanted to do the same thing for the last time in Lyon, returning from Eastern countries; far from the Toad dying, I thought I would die myself. This Animal after having unnecessarily tried to go out; turned towards me; and swelling extraordinarily and rising on all four feet, he blew impetuously without moving from his place, and looked at me thus without changing his eyes, which I saw noticeably redden and inflame; I instantly had a universal weakness, which suddenly went as far as fainting, accompanied by a cold sweat and loosening of the stools and urine. So that they thought I was dead. I had nothing more present than Theriac & Viper powder, of which they gave me a large dose which made me come back & I continued to take it evening & sailor for eight days that the weakness lasted me.
It is perhaps the Basilisk of some Authors that is said to kill with its sight, or at least it has the same virtue. I am not permitted to reveal all the remarkable effects of which I know this horrible animal is capable.
I return to my Oil or Balm, which I call tranquil, into the composition of which I include this prodigious Animal, and in the right way and with knowledge of the facts.
The properties of this Balm are to cure all Esquinancies by anointing alone before the abscess is formed; rubbing this Oil most warmly that you can use your hand across the entire throat for half a quarter of an hour; & applying warm cloths over the top; repeating from half hour to half hour if the patient is not sleeping. And when the abscess is formed, you must mix my Balm with as much Armoniac Salt Spirit, which makes a kind of ointment, and use it cold. The same is done with Balm alone hot for inflammations & for inflammations of the Lungs & Chest, which are cured by the sole external use of this Remedy: If the ailment is too gripping, it is given by mouth to swallow about half a spoonful or a spoonful; without ever fearing that any bad effects or transport to the brain will occur. For colic and inflammations of the bowels we drink it as I said, and we give it as an enema two or three spoonfuls, repeating the enemas from time to time. For burns if they are recent, when we have anointed them at the moment, we never feel any pain any more than if we were not burned, although the skin and the flesh are all burned and all washed away.
For newly made wounds; if we rub the entire region of the injured part with it, before putting any device on it, there is no inflammation or accident; & the wound is healed in such a short time that one is surprised, otherwise treating it in the ordinary way; whatever there is crumpling, contusion, laceration & fraction. And if in addition to this we bathe the wounds with the Brandies of Rosemary or Sage every day, thus reiterating the above-mentioned anointing, there is almost no need for other devices or Medicines. It is easy to understand without making a longer speech, that this Balsamic Oil must infinitely prevail over all the ordinary Oils which are used in the composition of Cerates, Liniments, Plasters & Ointments for the use of Surgery: & how much Tachenius' plaster for Gout becomes more excellent by composing it with this Balm, instead of the Rosat Oil which he uses. The particular experience I have will make the difference known to those who want to undergo the same test. But it is important to note that Calm Balm alone is not good for gout.
For the rules of women retained; & to facilitate layers & dissipate matrix inflammation, it is a wonderful remedy; anointing from below. These are all things experienced one infinite times; without any bad consequences or untoward accidents occurring . So that this one Remedy is a treasure, which cannot be valued enough; both for the ease of its composition and its application, and for the surprising effects it produces in diseases where there are hardly any others.
I will only add that for Fluxions of the chest I give with the anointing of this Remedy, to help expectorate fifteen or twenty grains of Cinnabar of Antimony, with eight or grains of Saturn Salt, which I repeat evening and morning , mixed in cooked apple with a spoonful of water to make it easier to swallow.
This Cinnabar is another Remedy for the same chest inflammations; whose effects satisfy the Patient and the Doctor, if we have not waited too late to use it: and we must have no scruples if it does not produce any perceptible effect which is regulated; acting variously enough according to the disposition of Nature without doing violence.
See what Emulate says about these other properties, which are effective & real; except for Epilepsy, from which I have not seen anyone cured by this Remedy. But for the Convulsions, the Colic, the Gravelle, the Vapors of women, always united with Laudanum, it did not fail me. To which I have sometimes added volatile salts of up to fifteen grains. This Cinnabar still works wonders in malignant fevers, smallpox, measles, purple fever and other similar diseases. With which taken internally the external anointing of the aforementioned Balm made on the Chest, the stomach & the belly, helps wonderfully to bring out the venom, & to rid a Sick. For smallpox, the armonia salt alone dissolved in the broth twice a day, from ten grains to twenty-five, and as much crayfish eye powder each time cures it without any accident, continuing all the days until the scabs are dry, and abstaining from all purgatives, even from enemas during all this time, because the danger of this disease is only in the course of the stomach or when the disease occurs.
throws it on the chest, not being able to go outside, which does not happen with this simple treatment: and although the patient remains constipated for seven or eight days without going once, one should not be embarrassed by it, the belly opens by itself without doing anything about it when it 's time, & when the suppuration & perspiration have ceased; At whereas enemas and purgatives prevent them and attract the venom to the chest; whence often comes a fatal flux or stomach flow. I do not speak in all these; diseases of the Elixir of property nor of the volatile salts, nor of the febrifuge Essences marked above; all skillful doctors know the good they can do there, both by pushing the venom out and by firming up the stomach when it relaxes too much. In which case the Brandy of Juniper Berries charged with the tincture of other unfermented Berries , is an infallible Remedy; without the need for any astringent: As well as in all stomach fluxes which are a problem for Doctors and the sick. If we fear too much heat in relation to the state of the Sick, a few drops of my Laudanum satisfy the rest, provided that it is not a relaxation of the vital faculties; in which case it is the approach of death, where there is no Remedy.
This same Essence of Juniper cannot be highly appreciated. It is one of the best Stomachics that I have experienced, both against indigestion and against coldness & weakness of the stomach & vomiting: we take a spoonful in the evening & in the morning, & immediately after dinner in water or wine.
Specific virtues of several Simples.
I cannot refrain from mentioning again, out of charity, some specific virtues of several Simple individuals, of whom I have certain experience . The little Centaurea being fermented as I said, acquires a real taste of garlic. Its brandy is a wonderful remedy for obstructions of the womb; not only to procure periods, but also to empty uterine dropsy and other deposits of this nature. The custom is to take about half a spoonful in water or wine a few days in a row, more or less, depending on the quality of the disease. She acts not only without violence, but in a gentle manner and without any fatigue.
The other uterine remedies can be mixed with it, because they all tend towards the same end, and are not contrary to each other when they are prepared by fermentation; like the Rhue, the Elixir of property, the Sabine, the Ænula campana, both fermented together. What remains after the distillation of the brandy, when it is evaporated into an electuary consistency, also has the same properties.
It is the same for all the other Simples after the distillation of their brandy; filtering or passing through a coarse cloth all the rest, & pressing the marc: After which we evaporate over low heat all their superfluous humidity, until the consistency of Opiate or electuary, which we keep for need. We give it as big as a half walnut or a whole walnut, dissolved in whatever vehicle we deem suitable, if we do not want to add the clean brandy that comes from it .
The fruit of the Elderberry ferments alone like grapes, without any leaven other than itself; & after having distilled it & having rectified the Brandy, I put an ounce of raw juice, unfermented & cooked over low heat to the consistency of Honey, on half a pound of bran; Spirit. A few days later I separate the silt that falls to the bottom, & I keep this dyed spirit. It is one of the most essential and specific remedies that exist in nature for all dysenteries, however malignant they may be; whether there is; complication of Fevers, whether there are Ulcers or corrosion of the intestines, even in the most desperate state. His action is insensible; And in two or three days at most, by taking one or two spoonfuls in doses in wine or water in the evening and morning, you are so firmly cured that you almost don't feel like you've been sick. It is a treasure in chest inflammations, in popular & contagious stomach & dysentery courses . Especially since the Remedy is easy to make in quantity, easy to transport; & that it keeps easily from one year to the next; but if you keep it longer it gets sour and is no longer so good.
Preparation of Vulnerable Plants.
Vulnerary Plants, such as Comfrey, Brunella, Periwinkle, Sanicle, Lungwort, & others of this nature, having no volatile essential Oil, of which the Water of Life is formed in the Simples; there is no need to let their fermentation go to the end, it is enough for it to have worked five or six days, and then having distilled in the refrigerant what spirit there is which is quite weak ; we pass the rest through a cloth to evaporate it to an electuary consistency and keep it. In which lies the Balsamic virtue of these Plants which was put into action by the fermentation of Honey, which is also very vulnerable; & which by this means was cleared of its largest excrement. So that giving this Opiate with its distilled water instead of syrups and the simple herbal teas or decoctions that we make from it, we see effects infinitely superior to all other ordinary preparations, without there being any suspicion of heat, like the least enlightened & the less experienced can know it. We can also dissolve the Opiate better in its simple distilled and unrectified spirit and filter the dissolution to separate the excrements and superfluities, and we will have a wonderful vulnerary water, both for the inside and for the outside, which infinitely surpasses all the others which are in use.
Sanicle alone thus prepared or combined with that of Elderberry, is specific for abscesses and even for lung ulcers which are not too inveterate. Which is no small mystery.
We can further strengthen these vulnerary remedies with a Balm of Sulfur of Antimony which has great effects for internal ulcers: and which is done in this way. We take Regulate made with two ounces of Mars, two ounces of fine Tin, two ounces of Venus, and eight ounces of Antimony; then having ground and pulverized eight ounces of this Regulate very subtly, we grind it exactly with a pound of Saltpetre fixed by charcoal and very dry; & having put it in a good crucible, which has a third or a quarter of vacuum; we cover it with its lid, and we set the fire gradually in a good cast iron furnace, until everything is in a mush, thus continuing the fire for five or six hours. This done, we break the crucible, the material being still hot, and we pulverize it and sieve it also hotly, so that it does not become humid in the air. We put it thus hot and dry in a large flask where there will be two or three pounds of Good Spirit of Turpentine; & we mix the trick well together, the orifice of the matras having been immediately closed with a meeting; and holding it in digestion for a few days, the Spirit of Turpentine will draw out a very beautiful and highly charged tincture. For then we separate by inclination the colored spirit, which we distill in a bain-marie in cucurbite, the tincture or sulfur remains at the bottom in the consistency of honey, on which we pour again very good spirit of wine which makes a new extraction of a more perfect and more subtle tincture, from which we still remove the Spirit of wine until the honey secret, to keep this Essence or honeyed tincture, above, mixing eight or ten drops per dose. A beautiful one is produced in another way; tinting of this metallic Regule, without using Spirit of Turpentine; but shout with the spirit of tartarized wine, which is poured onto the calcined material and thoroughly pulverized warmly. This colored spirit of wine is poured into a cucurbit to remove it in the bath, and the dye remains red, blackish and very caustic due to the salts mixed with it, and which the spirit of wine had dissolved: But they have no acrimony when they are mixed with the tincture in broth or in water in the quantity of forty to sixty drops. That which is made by the previous preparation with the Spirit Turpentine is softer & more sulphurous, and therefore better for the lungs & for the chest.
We can still make a good remedy from this calcined mass, without drawing the tincture from it with the spirit of turpentine or the spirit of wine, but throwing it pulverized into boiling water, to dissolve all the salt that is there. charged with the Sulfur of metals opened by Antimony: And having filtered this lye; we evaporate it dry to keep this Salt, which has insensible effects: by which we see in desperate illnesses Nature slowly recovering without any violence, from which a prompt and perfect healing often follows. The dose is a scruple in the broth, once or twice a day, depending on the disposition, condition & age of the patient.
We draw in the same way, either with the Spirit of Turpentine or that of wine, a tincture or common Sulfur Balm, which is a little ungrateful to the taste; by mixing instead of the aforementioned Regulates flowers of Sulfur with Niter fixed in equal weight, and this other Balm is still wonderful for the chest, for the lungs and for the kidneys, and infinitely better than those which are made with raw Sulphur; because this cooking & fixation which is done here with the Alkali of Nitre fixed, extremely matures its virtue, & greatly increases its medicinal Balm.
Those who want to use these Remedies and my method will see how much it surpasses that which is ordinarily used; I boldly dare to promise them success, which will satisfy them.
Provided that we do not overwhelm the sick with too many bloodlettings and purgations ; which I have always observed must be very discreetly practiced in these kinds of illnesses; where humidity & forces are necessary, to facilitate expectoration: on which depends the salvation of the sick. I spoke above of the excellence of Antimony Cinnabar for these kinds of illnesses.
There is still a preparation of Sulfur in the introduction to the Philosophy of the Ancients, in the Chapter of Acid Salts & Alkalis, at the end of the book; where the Sulfur is penetrated & dissolved radically in black color like ink, by the union which takes place with the Salt which dissolved & corrupted it. We can also make a beautiful & excellent dye from it. I refer the Reader there, who will make the reflections that this operation deserves on what the Author said in passing.
Manna.
To conclude this Book, I thought that it would not displease the Reader if I gave him a rare Essence & Anatomy of Manna; which is so well known in Medicine. I can speak about it more positively than many others, who only say what they have read without being able to judge it perfectly. So I examined all the species of Manna, which are found in Europe, Asia & Africa. I can even assure you that it is found everywhere in the world, although it does not freeze in lumps, such as we see them. I know what those who think it's frozen tree sap say. I saw on the very trees where it was attached, how it coagulates there. It is claimed that these are only the Fresnes, whose bark is incised in Summer: that the juice which weeps through this incision, is Manna after its coagulation, so that according to these Authors it is only a gum which only differs in species from that of the Cherry, Juniper and others; This species of Ash is different from ours; In Italian it is called Ornello. However, it is certain that there are other trees in Italy where Manna also attaches, and when we have carefully examined the fact, we clearly know that it is not tree juice which flows through them. incision; because if that were the case, there would only be Manna in the places where these incisions were made & trees of different species would also make different Manna; as the gum of Cherry and Plum differ from each other, and not that of Juniper.
Furthermore we see, as I said, that Manna is found elsewhere than on the trunks of trees. The leaves are all covered with it; & as it flows over it without being coagulated, their tip is loaded with a tear each, which is carefully collected. We call it Manna di-foglio: We don't see any in France. As we collects little, we keep it for the Grand Lords of the country: In addition to that of the leaves, we still find it on the herbs, which are honeyed with it; & even on stones where it is coagulated into small grains like Coriander. You don't have to go further than Briançon to be convinced of this. But as almost only the Italian one is in use in Europe; and that the one that was transported was collected from the incisions of these trees, it was wrongly judged that it was pure juice and nothing else.
If we had examined the fact more solidly, we would have recognized the opposite, and that this incision of the tree is only a means which retains more copiously and more easily this material, which abounds in it more or less depending on the layout of the places, & the temperature of the country such as Dauphiné, Calabria, Sicily, Tolfa , the island of Sancta-Felicita, & all the surroundings of Rome.
My curiosity about this matter took me further, because I did not travel to see only the land and the cities, which throughout the world are almost similar. I examined as much as I could what presented itself along the way; & because I found Manes, which seemed different to me, like that of Mount Lebanon & that of Persia ; I have given the necessary application and care to know them.
Those of these countries are not white or in small pieces like those of Europe. On the contrary, they are green as Vitriol; and we collect them in the consistency of honey from the herbs and foliage which are quite full of them. We put them in goat skins to transport them, in which they harden so much that axes are needed to cut and separate them when needed .
That of Mount Sinai is of a completely different nature from the others.
Its famous name in Holy Scripture obliged me to make a more particular discussion of it for several reasons of consequence. I knew that it was in doubt whether there were still any actually falling; & I saw a Bishop who assured me that it had never fallen there except during the time that Moses spent there with the People of God, alleging for the reason that it was a miraculous food, of which the Lord had provided for the Israelites in these deserts, which produce only stones .
But with due respect to this Prelate, Summer, which is very dry and very hot in that country; where even it never rains. And it is from the face that Moses depicted it, with this property which is still particular to it, that it evaporates so quickly, that if we keep thirty pounds of it in an open vessel, there will be none. ten pounds fifteen days later; & finally everything dissipates without anything remaining. What the other Manes do not do , since we keep them for whole years with little reduction. The miracle continues to exist in the food that this Manna gave to the Hebrews. Because we know that a substance so light and so poorly proportioned is not naturally capable of producing such an effect.
It does not catch on trees, since there are none in the deserts where it falls. It is found on rocks and on some arid herbs, which grow in the valleys, and which have a very strong and penetrating odor; which they communicate to this Manna.
This is a fact of which I can be assured, since I had more than twenty pounds of it. I had them collected by Arabs at the request of the Archbishop of Mount Sinai, who feeds these wretches, who would not allow others to stray into these deserts without stripping them. The work that I have done on all of these kinds of Manes has not been superficial. I have consumed more than a hundred pounds in various operations.
The first was to distill it as I had purchased it. What happened to me was what I did not expect, because, although I had only put two pounds of it in a retort, and I only distilled it over a sand fire with a container that held a good fifteen pints, the The vapors that came out were so powerful that the balloon burst and made a noise like a musket shot. From where I noticed that it was not easy to distil such a spirituous material, unless some slight opening was left to the vessels, to give passage to the ardor of these spirits which cannot be controlled by the heat of the fire.
By a second distillation of new material, I found a fetid Spirit, which was a little acidic and igneous, quite close to the spirit of Tartar , and a black, stinking, and very pungent Oil, like that of distilled woods. The great stench displeased me, although I knew that it could be corrected by rectifications, I did not find it appropriate to dwell on it further and I believed that something else should be meditated on. I therefore convinced myself that this sweetness filled with a celestial spirit must contain something excellent & much nobler than Honey; I also understood that the way to highlight this beautiful virtue must be fermentation. For this, I dissolved ten or twelve pounds of Manna in four times its weight of hot water: & having passed everything through a cloth, I put the solution in large glass vessels, each holding ten or twelve pints in a place hot. In Egypt, where the air is quite hot in summer, there is no need for an oven. This material heated up of its own accord and fermented for seventy days.
For then having separated a silt, which had settled, I distilled this wine in a refrigerator. He gave me an excellent brandy, and in a much larger quantity than common wine would have made, after the brandy there passed a whitish and milky phlegm which disturbed her. This delighted me, seeing clearly that it was a volatile, essential, ethereal Oil that I would never have imagined would have to be in this subject. I understood from this, that it was this volatile Oil which caused my vessels to burst, when I distilled without fermenting & I also lost it, when I sometimes left some opening to give passage to too angry spirits.
I therefore continued my distillation in the refrigerant, until the phlegm became clear and was no longer whitish. So I let everything that had passed through it rest in the container, Oil, Brandy & Phlegm mixed together. In eight or ten days, this milky mixture cleared up and there emerged a golden oil, the color of yellow amber, which had a very spicy and aromatic taste, more precious than an essential oil of cinnamon, like we will see.
Then I poured everything into another, smaller condenser to rectify these materials more precisely. My Eau-de-vie passed into Spirit of wine accompanied by its Aromatic oil, of which it was required; & this mixture gave off an odor of Essence of Ambergris, without any odor of Spirit of wine, the virtues of which seemed to me more perfect than those of Amber itself.
I showed this Essence of Manna to Connoisseurs, who took it for Ambergris & who valued its preparation much beyond what they knew how to make. I left them in this opinion, and to surprise them further, I told them that my essential tincture had vanished. They believed him, was evaporating.
This is already rare and precious enough to be esteemed by the most skilful Philosophers. When I have described the other, I am assured that the mixture of the two will give me credit among people of good faith who will see with what candor I have given such a beautiful and excellent thing to the public. After removing from my refrigerator what remained from my distillation, I evaporated it to the same consistency as it was before all this work: I put it in large glass retorts & distilled it. with very well-graded sand fire , to avoid swelling which is very easy and very large. A good Artist knows how to behave. I had phlegm, a red spirit, & a black, fetid, very pungent oil. I wanted to rectify this Spirit; & after seventy repeated rectifications with Bainmarie, seeing that it always left black earth at the bottom of the cucurbit, I thought of another method of rectifying it, which is here, & by which it acquires a taste of non-corrosive fire , which makes it known that it is a real volatile Alkali which is admirable.
I took the dead head which was black and shiny like spalter or jay; it was tasteless, and having washed it in boiling water, it gave no salt. As soon as I broke the retort to remove it , this material ignited of itself in the air like a hot coal from inside the terrine where I had placed it on the table. I don't know if there are other materials that have this effect, if you except Saturn Salt. Because Phosphors do different things.
So I crushed this dead head, I put it in a retort with all its Spirit & its Oil; & I distilled with Sable, strong fire at the end. I co-observed this spirit & its Oil on the same dead head nine or ten times; They left me a lexivial salt in the dead head which had none before, which can be separated from the earth by leaching. A good Artist who is also a Philosopher will judge the nature of this Salt, which was coagulated from the substance of a volatile Alkali Spirit by a single fire of Sand.
Dissolve this Salt in the rest of the delegated Spirit, from which it was formed & unite this dissolution with the Brandy impregnated with the Aromatic Oil. Put this mixture in digestion, to separate a hypostasis which will fall to the bottom.
are united in one resurrected Being. It is a concentrated Spirit of life with an admirable odor and virtue. And if we can say that if there is a subject where the universal spirit & the soul of the world, is made perceptible in unspecified simplicity, it is this Essence, with which I end this work. I beg all those who read it to accept my good will; & I implore them to be kind enough to share with me as kindly as possible the best they have.
Great Artists will easily observe that the ordinary materials, which give by the distillation of ethereal & aromatic Oils, no longer have any after they have been well fermented. But perhaps they do not know that Manna on the contrary, which does not give any of this Oil before its fermentation, gives it afterwards in quantity, with a very sweet smell and taste, although it gives even more 'Eau-de-vie than any other fermentable material. However , I still have a very curious reflection to make on the Manna of Mount Sinai, in which I noticed a singular property which is not found in all the other Manna, whether from France, Italy, Persia, from Mount Lebanon or Ethiopia; I wanted to ferment it like the others, having dissolved it in four times its weight of water, I put it near some other vessels, where there were some from Sicily and Mount Lebanon, to make everything work at the same time. It was in Greater Cairo; The next day I was very surprised to see that this Manna from Mount Sinai, which is so volatile and so easily evaporable, had coagulated the water as if into glue, while the others were as I had left them. I added new water to dissolve this coagulate, believing that the fault came from the fact that I had not added enough water the first time; & the next day everything was still coagulated. Which happened up to four times in a row. I stopped adding new water, not being able to follow this experiment any further, because I was obliged to leave everything to return to Europe, quite upset at not being able to know, as it was easy for me, up to what quantity of water a pound of this Manna could have extended its coagulative virtue, at least having already passed seven or eight pounds, and did not yet appear weakened.
I could not judge anything else about this coagulative power, except that it had been communicated to him by the petrifying virtue which is surprising in that country. There we find melons, snakes, Mushrooms, Wood, and even large logs petrified from having remained on the earth for some time in these deserts and on the shores of the Red Sea, as I saw with my own eyes; where those who had passed in the Caravan had abandoned them. So that this which had only remained one night, and which because of its simplicity is not yet close enough to stony coagulability, still contains the ferment and communicates it easily to the water by the intimate mixing which takes place in its dissolution. There is reason to believe that if this coagulated water had been kept for long enough it would have finally completely petrified.
I now leave it to think, not to apprentices, nor to those people who have never read any Philosopher who deserves the name; but I speak to the most skilled, who understand what I say, I therefore leave them to reflect on the difference between simple and the Essence that I have just described. However, what is there in this noble Essence other than the same completely pure, and only separated by Nature and by Art from all its excrement; whose principles have been matured, exalted & glorified by themselves, with this vital & fruitful movement of which the universal Spirit is the father. It is the source from which all corporeal Beings emanate; it is the agent to which all sublunary Nature is subject, and without which consequently according to the great Authors, all Philosophy is only a dream and pure illusion.
Conclusion of this Work.
From all this doctrine, it follows that ferments are the principles of all illnesses and all cures, because there is no alteration in Nature except through the action of some ferment, and the first motor of these ferments is this universal Spirit, of which Van Helmont so rightly said: Si aer volatilisat sulphur conereis cum omnimoda separation; sui talis; hoc sal quod alias fixaretur in alkali per ignem, fit totum volatile, &c (If the air evaporates, the sulfur will be thrown away all kinds of separation; such of himself; this salt which would otherwise be fixed in the alkali by fire, the whole becomes volatile). On which I give the example of rotten and decayed wood, which leaves no salt in its ashes, because the air has volatilized it by the ferment of corruption, such as its germinating seed of the earth would have done. same wood, or its fermentation into Eau-devie, independently of whatever figuration it may be.
corporeal than the spirit of the air, which being in itself unalterable & immutable, & changes all sublunary bodies by a true resolving & corruptive fermentation, like the invisible universal spirit, without altering their seminal principles. And consequently, it is necessary to understand that there is in Beings something more than the figure and the movement of the parts, which compose the body of the machine: and that this something is in Being a light vital & the first principle from which emanates the movement itself as well as the figuration. Omne donum opimum desurfum est, desccndens à Patre luminum (Every rich gift is unsurfed, descending from the Father of lights). This is what represents the Creator in the Creatures, of which as such he is the Father. There is no paternity without filiation, & all filiation says Image & similarity more or less perfectly, according to Saint Paul. Jesus Christ is the first & the prototype from which all the others emanate. Who is imago Dei invisibilis primogenitus omnis Creatura; quoniam in ipsa condita sunt miversa in coelis & in terra; vivebilia & invifibitia (the image of the invisible God the firstborn of every creature; since in her were created the wonders in the heavens and the land; livable & non-livable). And it is this Image, as participation of the Divinity, which makes us know God in his Creatures.
Invifibilia enim Dei per ta qua facta unt intellecta conspiciuntur.
For the unfathomable things of God are seen through such things as are understood.
This Image is something living, second, non-sensible, which is not God himself: it is the incomprehensible emanation of the Divinity extended outside, of which, whatever anyone says, we cannot give a definition nor even a sufficient description, which satisfies an enlightened mind; that this enlightened mind nevertheless cannot fail to understand without being able to express it, for lack of a proportionate idea to represent it. Scrutator Majetatis oprimetur a gloria (The examiner of majesty is overwhelmed by glory).
I have no doubt that many of those who have taken the trouble to read these Experiences will have feelings opposed to those which appear in my reasonings. But I can take the liberty of telling them that I have hardly seen any of these Philosophers who have joined Art to study, who do not have the same principles that I have. They are not a new invention, which would be suspect to me myself. Nature has nothing new. I am more easily convinced of a thought that I find in a skilful Philosopher who has worked all his life on Nature, and who moreover seems to me to be in agreement with others older than him; that I would have no faith in those who only have empty reasoning, without having made for themselves any experience of the secret movements of Nature. It is very easy to contradict & deny, but very difficult to prove & establish solidly without the help of Art, as those who only want to propose new principles & systems usually do to have the glory of the invention & novelty, which must always be suspect in matters of science.
If I did not keep the whole method and order of writing, it is only because the reasonings and experiences were so dependent on each other that it was necessary to let the flow flow naturally. discourse according to the force of science, to which a Philosopher must attach incomparably more than to Rhetoric & Eloquence; at least I dare to hope that those who have found faults will not only excuse them, but give me the means to correct them, having no other intention than to please the public, and not to produce myself . Their charitable treatment will be a reason to urge me to try to do with God's help and their help, and better and more.
Quote of the Day
“from the beginning to the end of the work a long time is required, although some Philosophers do say, the Stone may be made in one day, and others in one month: But know that they speak Enigmatically, and that their words ought not thus to be understood. Nevertheless I say with Scotus that the Stone or perfect work may be made in one year.”
Bernard Trevisan
Treatise of the Philosophers Stone
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