THE CONSOLATION OF NAVIGANTS

In which are taught to those who travel by sea a way to protect themselves from hunger & thirst, even from illnesses that could occur to them during a long journey.
Highlighted by JEAN RODOLPHE GLAUBER in favor of those who undertake long & perilous navigations for the benefit of the fatherland.

Translated into French by Sieur Du TEIL

IN PARIS,
At THOMAS JOLLY, Sworn Bookseller
rue Saint-Jacques, at the corner of rue de la Parcheminerie, at the Armes d'Hollande.

MDCLIX
WITH PRIVILEGE OF THE KING.

PREFACE TO THE READER.

Dear Reader, Our Savior Jesus Christ commanded us to treat our neighbor as we would like to be treated, & even to love him as our equal, which is a doctrine on which the law & the Prophets depend. And although very few people think about it, and everyone is attached to their own interests, there is nevertheless someone who thinks about this precept, and who misses no opportunity to serve his neighbor.

There are those who, being only able to give their advice and their assistance, give them very willingly; others who could be generous with their faculties are so driven by envy and avarice that they have no friendship except for themselves, and it is of this kind of people that the world is filled, whence comes that charity towards one's neighbor is entirely extinguished.Since the divine omnipotence has given me a mediocre talent for researching the secrets of nature, no doubt so that I can communicate it to others, I will say without reproach that I did not want to bury it, but that every year I have given something of it to the public. I have even resolved, with his assistance, to bring more to light & in number & in goodness. Now, after having read many accounts of voyages by sea, in the East and West Indies, I have considered with astonishment the terrible dangers that one runs there, as much because of the enemies and the Pirates, as the pitfalls and the storms which submerge the Vessels: but of all the dangers and all the inconveniences and navigation I find none more annoying, nothing more unbearable than the scarcity of food and drink .For when the vessels are taken from the Corsairs, those who were in them indeed lose their goods, but ordinarily they do not lose their lives, the loss of which is irreparable, where one can easily by means of commerce repair that of wealth; that if they are condemned to die, they are soon freed from all manner of pain. But if it happens by misfortune that we are deprived of bread of water, and that we come to this horrible extremity of tearing ourselves apart and eating each other, certainly it is a misery much more cruel than death itself. Although the provisions of the mouth to eat it are not so often lacking, it is not the same with water, so that when one runs out one is forced to endure the torments of thirst,without hope of any help being in the open sea at the mercy of winds and waves. Now, the prosperity of the maritime regions where hardly any wine or wheat grows, such as Upper Germany, consisting principally in navigation, it is important to establish it as advantageously as possible. And this is the reason that forced me to think of the means there are to remedy this dearth of provisions for drinking and eating, that things can be made in the ships more capable of allaying hunger and thirst than common bread and water, even of curing the common illness of sailors, namely scurvy. So in case the trip is longer than we had imagined, we can use this material when the provisions have run out.

This is why, in order that all mankind may derive some use from it, I have had this work printed, and I did not want to address it to just a few individuals, and I have no doubt that my sincerity will not be well received by all travelers who, finding themselves in the dangers of navigation, will have protected themselves from the inconveniences by this means, for which they will have reason to give thanks to God as long as the world lasts and we make voyages on the sea. so good foundations, everyone is free to rely on experience, before putting faith in it, being able to try it not only while traveling, but also at home. Let no one, therefore, recklessly blame what he cannot understand, lest he later fall into confusion.It should also come as no surprise that in some places I did not explain myself clearly, because I am right about that. And the affectionate Reader must receive this work as a gift from God: for if I see that he receives it in good part, I will communicate more to him with the help of God. All those therefore who will need these remedies against hunger & thirst, & diseases that attack seafarers, he can address himself to a man who prepares them according to my instructions. If there are fools and ingrates to whom this proposal is not agreeable;it will be so, however, to God, who has recommended a mutual affection to us and who will one day grant me this grace, which pious and grateful souls will fulfill towards my children who will remain after me for the obligation they will have to me..

THE CONSOLATION OF NAVIGANTS.

Let us therefore begin our work, and discover the most necessary remedies for navigation, since they can protect us not only from hunger and thirst, but also from disease. Now these remedies are nothing other than wheat, water concentrated, or reduced to a thicker substance, this one to appease hunger, and this one to quench thirst. I will teach exactly the way to concentrate one & the other, & to use them in the need, & firstly:

From the concentration of wheat.
As to this concentration I have carefully explained it in the first part of the Prosperity of Germany, so that there is no need of repetition: nevertheless to instruct those who have not read this treatise, it seems that this brief repetition is necessary.

From rye, oats, wheat, barley, & another kind of wheat, we make a porridge of it as we are accustomed to cooking beer, & we remove all that there is of good juice, as if we wanted to make a little beer. Then we cook this liquor little by little in large & deep copper vessels until the consistency of honey. The straw and the bran are given to the cattle, to serve them as food, but the juice can conveniently be taken to sea, and if you want to add water and hops to it, you can make beer. And since usually eight tons of wheat yield one full of liquor, and each ton filled with wheat yields one and a half, even two, of beer, so each ton filled with liquor yields at least 8, 10, or 11, tons of beer, depending on whether you want it big or small .So much so that a ton full of juice or liquor is more easily kept in the Vessel than ten or twelve full barrels of beer, which sour and corrupt easily, but on the contrary the liquor, provided it is not stale, persists in its goodness. And this is very useful, since liquor can be made into very good & new beer. But there is still another convenience, if you make bread with rye flour, which is much more nourishing than common bread, and even has the virtue of restoring the sick. This is why our Predecessors were right to knead the flour with purified honey instead of water, of which they made bread which they called cakes of life, especially since they fortified the human body & gave it life.Today when everyone is addicted to greed you see these cakes made with impure honey, which makes them contemptible. So they can't sustain much, for they smell this coarse honey. But our bread is much nobler & more pleasant, since the juice which has been drawn from the wheat gives more excellent nourishment. That if you want to come with more, you should know that this wheat liquor being concentrated is even more profitable, if it is mixed with selected flours, and that the bread which will be formed from it is cut into pieces & baked in the oven until dryness & hardness, then being put in baskets where it is well preserved from the air to be brought into the Ship.Because in need it can be sprinkled with hot water of hops, and having removed the faeces or phlegm from it, it will acquire the substance of beer. What does not taste in liquor, & which does not take the nature of small beer, being heated in a cauldron with a little butter will be very clean for those to whom the sea will cause stomach ache, & will relieve them as much or more than if they had eaten bread soaked in beer. When the bitter potions are unpleasant to the taste, do not cook hops in the beer, but set aside only bread mixed with fresh water for evaporation, which will have a very pleasant taste. It could even be made of the biscuit, which is broken up to be kept in baskets for boarding. Then if necessary you can sprinkle it with boiling water,& putting it in an open barrel, which however has a bottom, & letting it leave its faeces, by this means the flour rises to the top, & the water attracting a sweet liquor, he makes an excellent & salutary beer, as clear when poured as if it had remained there for several months, especially since the separation is made of the pure from the impure. The most subtle being removed from the vessel, the thickest being cooked with butter is of an extremely pleasant taste, and of better digestion than beans, pitches, and herbal tea. So much so that nothing is lost at all, and this kind of bread makes excellent beer for drinking, and good soup for eating. Thus, in any season of the year, one can have new beer in the Ship, and even good vinegar,This will suffice to have briefly shown the means of allaying hunger and thirst, by the concentration of wheat. Now follows the way to cure all diseases that attack men at sea or elsewhere.

Ordinarily men keep neither rule nor measure in their drinking and eating, but die of excess. This vice is increased by the abuse of custom, which obliges & constrains under the pretext of courtesy to eat more than is necessary. Then the liver is forced to receive foods that are not half-cooked, from which it can only make & distribute coarse phlegmatic blood so that by succession of time, the entrails are filled & clogged with thick & viscous humors. Whence it comes that not a member can perform its natural functions, and that an infinity of diverse diseases are engendered, according as these crudities have surrounded the flesh which covers the members, and obstructed the nerves, and the veins, and spoiled all the means of nourishment.The evil having come so far, one feels pain all over the body, but mainly in the place where the disease has established its seat: thus one part feels the weakness of the other, as long as finally all the forces come to lack, and death takes the patient, if he is not helped by medicine. It is from there also that it drew its birth, in order to go to meet these diseases which come to us from gluttony, & to relieve the members of these bad humors with which they were filled, & to put the body back in its first state. Which is done in several kinds according to the knowledge of the Physician. When the disease is driven out by evacuations upwards and downwards, by sweats, by urine, according to the constitution of the patient, and according to the nature of his disease.In whatever way these malignant humors are dissipated, provided that the internal parts are not offended, and health is restored, then the Physician has done his duty, having rendered himself worthy of thanks and reward. Whoever therefore knows the nature of illnesses perfectly, and who has good medicines, can easily succeed on occasion, but whoever has neither one nor the other, he will shamefully make mistakes, as long as the disease regregates, and the patient finally gives up his spirit: This truth is only too well known, and that is why there are many who do not dare to trust their life to an ignorant Doctor, and who prefers to heal by the young and by the abstinence, from the evils they have contracted by excesses of drinking and eating:which is only done by the length of time, but also it is a safe way. Others use medicines without virtue and without efficacy, and coming to cure, they attribute health to them, which has only returned by the length of time they have remained without eating; which gradually drove away the superfluous moods. As it is seen in these patients, who have no kind of remedy, nature becoming stronger with time, and driving out the bad habit of the body. Now the more bad humors there are to dissipate, the more time nature must employ in them; & what she does in five or six weeks, an expert Doctor will do in three or four days with good remedies. So much there is of difference between the cure which is done naturally by the length of time, and that of art,which is done more quickly. Seen. therefore that nature and art must contribute to healing; we clearly see by what means we can prevent evils, or happily cure them by the evacuation of the bad moods which are the root of them. That if someone objects that bad humors are not the cause of all diseases, and that they come from elsewhere, I answer him that apart from the accidents of blows, wounds, falls, etc., all the indispositions of the human body which are on the surface of the leather are born from the intemperance of drinking and eating, because one part communicates its evil to the other, as long as the whole body abounds in bad moods. The stomach being tormented by excess of eating and drinking and having contracted cold and pernicious raw vegetables,how can it make a good digestion, & send to the liver something good? And the liver having received nothing but bad, what can it distribute to the body that is useful and salutary? Thus it is necessary that one member suffers on the occasion of the other, and that he pays for the common fault. As long as a tree or a grass is attached to a well-tempered soil, which is neither too oily nor too dry, the root can draw good nourishment from it, & communicate it to the trunk, the trunk to the branches, the branches to the leaves, to the flowers, & to the fruits, & produce excellent ones for many years: that if it is planted in badly disposed soil, the trunk only draws bad juice from it, & distributes it to the branches. If the plant has a swampy foundation,which, because of its excessive wateriness, will fall before ripening; instead of good fruit there will be mushrooms & other excrement from rotting, the plant itself will not last long. If it is in a soil that is too arid and too thin, the root will not draw enough juice from it to nourish the trunk, the branches, and the fruit, but in the end it will dry up little by little from the top to the base. It is the same with men and their illnesses.Having therefore proved that all evils arise from the redundancy of humours, they can easily be prevented or expelled by suitable remedies: Which must have this property of attracting all the pernicious humours of all the viscera and main membranes of the body into the ventricle, giving it the strength to digest well, separating the pure from the impure, transmit this one to the liver, & evacuate this one through the stool .

And thus the body is not only freed from harmful humours, but entirely cured. These medicines are known only to very few people, & it must not be believed that they are made from common herbs, there must be something more excellent.It is true that the simples have great virtues, as is seen in hellebore, by means of which the ancients prolonged their life, taking a certain dose of it every day. Tobacco also, being well prepared, works wonders, as one sees even in that which is caught in smoke, the use of which not only gives some vigor to the body, but also helps to relieve hunger and thirst, as experience teaches us. Petun takers do not know the cause, nor do they care not to know it & are content with the pleasure or utility they receive from it. If, then, tobacco or some other common herb, although raw and unprepared, produces such marvelous effects, what would not the extract or concentrated essence of all vegetables do?which must have the virtue not only of driving out all the vicious humors of the body, but also of fortifying its internal parts, and protecting it from all that can cause disease.

Such is this Medicine that I come to offer to all those who make long sea voyages, and who are subject to many infirmities, besides Scurvy; by means of which they will not only be able to preserve themselves from it, and to heal themselves, if they are attacked by it; but still subsists in the scarcity of provisions. Now it is not necessary to manifest to each one of what species or ingredient this Medicine is composed; it is a great gift from God, and so considerable, that it should not be prostituted to those who are unworthy of it.

It is enough now to be able to recover such an excellent remedy for little money: I will not allow it to be locked up with me in the tomb, I will leave it to others who will keep it with the honor that is due to it, & will give it at a reasonable price to those curious about their health. It will be given in the form of an electuary, of which every day, or for 3 or 4 days, one can take as a precaution the quantity of half a pea or a whole pea, after which taken it will be good to remain two hours without eating, if one wants to eat even immediately after it does not matter. That if anyone beset with fever, Scurvy;Headache, catarrh, or other illnesses that occur at sea, first he must put on his tongue and swallow the size of a pea of ​​this remedy, not being unpleasant to the taste, and try to sweat, or at least that he abstains for half a day, that he avoids excessive heat in summer, and harsh cold in winter . On the second day he will take the size of a pea or two, and thus he will increase or decrease the dose according to the state of his illness. These things being well observed, he must absolutely recover. If anyone carries with him only half an ounce of this remedy, he is sure to have a very sovereign panacea for his health, during his journey beyond even a year.After the Universal Medicine, there is none that equals this one, it has all the effects that I attributed to my Catholicum in the 2nd part of my Spagyric Pharmacopoeia, but this one is only a powder, and this remedy of which I speak now is an electuary composed of good ingredients with sugar. I repeat it again & publish it loudly, that there is no harm inside or outside that this remedy does not cure, even smallpox, leprosy & gout, provided it is not too inveterate; & if it is inveterate that it is incurable, this remedy will always bring some relief, & at least will prevent the evil from returning. Nature must be completely spoiled and corrupted when this remedy cannot operate. I say nothing but effective, and of which I do not have the testimony of experience.Everyone is free to believe it or not; for me it is enough to have satisfied my conscience by serving my neighbour. I foresee that there will be some envious people, who will vomit the venom of their tongue against me, and who will say that this universal Medicine is impossible. These slanderers as they know nothing, they would like no one to possess any good knowledge, they have a good opinion only of themselves. Who can prevent the babble of these people, the Goslings do the same? In this it is necessary to refer to the truth, and to know the worker by his work.

Whether men use this remedy or not, I have done what I had to by offering it to them, not only against all the ills that come at sea, but also to fortify the body against hunger. There is also another remedy against thirst, to relieve & refresh the body, in a scarcity of water & drink: Which is done by means of concentrated water, which has no equal in the world to refresh the thirsty palate. Since, therefore, it can happen that water is lacking during a long navigation, it is necessary here to declare how one can remedy this inconvenience, & even prevent common water from becoming dirty or corrupt, & make sure that one ton of water can quench your thirst as much as two or three of common water. To know by means of the concentration or coagulation of water.

Many will believe that it is not very necessary to explain the true property of concentrated water, especially since travelers are hardly curious about this knowledge, and send it back to the Philosophers, and to the contemplators of nature. But this work will not only fall into the hands of sailors, but also into those of sages and scholars; that is why I imagine that I will not waste my time if I make an exact description of this water.

Those who have ever heard of natural things know well that at the beginning of the world, Almighty God separated the Elements from formless chaos, that he put the earth in the foundation or center, that on the earth he put water, on the water the air and on the air the fire. So much so that each has his seat and his receptacle, from which he does not leave without the order of God. Now we find that there is such a communication between them, that they never do one without the other; & if there is one that predominates somewhere, the others are hidden in it, whence they can be extracted by industry. Thus from the earth we draw water, air & fire; water, earth, air & fire; & fire, air, water & earth.Thus the Elements are converted & pass from one species to another, & each of them receives & reciprocally gives life to his companion. Fire cannot burn without air; fire acts on water, and makes it air; the water remains on the earth, to which it gives moisture; fire swallows air; the air flows its seed into the earth; the earth nourishes & foments this seed until perfection, then it produces it & brings to light what it had in its womb. It was necessary to say this in passing. But to return to concentrated water, and to declare its nature, it should be known that water is the principle of all the other Elements.What we see & experience daily, mainly in underground mines, whose deepest entrails are penetrated by it. This is where we see that not only is there water, but that it is converted into various forms of mineral bodies. This is beyond doubt. And all the more that the water is clear & clean, all the more it generates more shiny stones, & purer minerals. What I have dealt with extensively in the book of the Generation of Metals. It is also very constant that stones and sands receive growth from water, in the earth, in rivers, and in the sea. For all sand was originally water, and was converted into stone or sand under water, into which it can be changed again.However, such water is not used to quench the thirst, especially since it has become too hard and can hardly regain its first substance, except by means of a certain subject which is like a common medium between sand, stones, crystals, & water, which is none other than salt, which together bears the name of stone water, & which can be easily changed into one & the other . As we will see below.

This concentrated water that I will propose here to chase away thirst, and to replenish the body, is neither stone, nor crystal, nor anything else too hard, which those who, for lack of drink, are accused to put in their mouths, but whose use is useless because such a kind of water is too coagulated. But what I propose is a salt, which can be repaired indifferently from mountain waters or from those of the sea with equal goodness. From which, by means of art, water is made so excellent that it can quench thirst and restore a languid body. Some ignoramus may say, how can it be that salt quenches thirst, since it corrupts those who eat it? But I answer that it is true that common salt, far from quenching thirst, provokes it, if it is not first purified.For one can take away its bitterness and its earthiness, and then it is no longer hard, being reduced to soft and fluid water, not sweet, but pungent and with a taste similar to cider. Now, this purification must necessarily be done by fire, by sublimating the salt and distilling it in earthen vessels over a high fire. By this means the noblest and purest part rises to the top; & the earthy & thickest remains at the bottom, being almost of no use, but the other which is purified has great virtues not only against thirst, but also for many other very necessary things, as will be shown below. No one doubts that common salt, impure as it is, contains great virtue. This is why the famous philosopher Plato wrote that there was something divine in salt,& the contentment of all the Sages God made himself known in the fire, & in the salt. The Ancients used it to do admirable things, even to prepare universal medicine, and gave this Art the name of Alchemy, that is to say fusion of salt: I say nothing about it, having never dared to undertake such a lofty operation. Of one thing I am quite sure that I have done more than once, and that is that by some means I have precipitated corporeal gold, albeit without profit, but only to experience the possibility. Now in the common salt there is corporeal gold, which remains spiritual without the aforesaid precipitation, by which afterwards it acquires a corporeal substance. This is what no one should marvel at.Certainly the greatest mystery of the world consists in the fire and in the salt, & after nothing can be compared to these two things. The flame draws light out of darkness, which no one has ever done but God, it can restore life to the dead, as the Sun or a hot oven restores it to worms, frogs, flies, & other insects which had died of cold, when exposed to the heat of one or the other. What I discussed more fully in the second part of my Spagyric Pharmacy & in the miracle of the world & in its explanation an infinity of people use fire without knowing it, they do the same with salt. They say that salt is a thing of great price, the loss of which is sensible, that it gives strength, and that it preserves from decay both the living and the dead.And certainly the thing is true. If men had no salt, or at least of the plants & fruits which contain it, they would be subject to rotting although alive.

Cattle would be too, if they did not find salt in the grass they eat, which is, in truth, enough to feed them; but if one gives to horned animals, and even to pigs, something salty in their drink and in their food, they become fatter and more vigorous; then that rough & coarse salt full of faeces of impurities, does what we have said, that it keeps living creatures, the flesh from rotting, purifies dead fish, & all kinds of herbs, what will a salt not do, which by means of art will have acquired more subtlety & purity than it had received from nature? This is how fire has the power to correct salt,to purify it & convert it into a better & tenderer substance. Common salts give a pleasant taste to everything we eat, and keep it from rotting, however they dry out, tighten the stomach, and alter it. But rectified & purified salt gives a pleasant taste to meats, prevents corruption with more virtue than the other, without tightening the stomach, on the contrary it makes it free, makes it urinate, & far from causing thirst, it drives it away both from the sick and from those who are well: idiots do not know this great difference which is between common salt, & corrected salt, having knowledge of salt only as regards cooking. Apothecaries sell spirit of salt; but for what ordinarily it is not well prepared, it does not have a great effect,If it were well prepared, it would be more palatable, & would be more effective. Many things have names that do not follow them. The Ancients attributed a singular goodness to the spirit of salt in Medicine, as the truth testifies, provided that after distillation it is once again rectified & purged of its phlegm. That if we use it raw as it was first mounted, we will perhaps receive more harm than benefit; for there rises a great deal of earthiness, which remains at the bottom by rectification, just like the bitter, insipid, and astringent salt.

And although this is observed by some, they nevertheless spare themselves the trouble of repeating the distillation, and they even shun this work,because the spirit loses most of its weight in the rectification, since the useless faeces are separated from it. Several years ago I taught how one can make salt spirit in abundance, the description of which is exactly proposed in the first and second parts of the Fourneaux: however, there have been found very few people who have undertaken this work, although it returns much utility not only in Medicine, but also in the kitchen, even in the metal, as it is seen in the first Part of the Mineral work, where is taught the way of extracting gold from stones by its means. Although this spirit is otherwise prepared for the aforesaid operation than it is for quenching thirst, and for curing diseases, both on sea and on land.
The manner therefore of anatomizing salt by means of fire, and of transmuting it into a pure and suave spirit, is diverse, as I have already said in my first and second Part of the furnaces. Here I will discover a brand new very convenient one, which I do as follows.

Build of a good earth, or of glass still better, strong retorts, fill them with salt & dry earth, then according to the art distill from it a suavely acid spirit, by reiterating however, so that it is well rectified & prepared for use. Let the salt be made & disposed for distillation, in this manner. Fill an earthen pot with cooking or sea salt, cover it with a lid also with earth, put burning coals all around, & approach them little by little, as long as the salt ignites on all sides; this being done, remove the vessel from the fire, and let it cool. If by chance some fat or other combustible material has stuck to the vessel, it is carried away by the fire, dissolves the salt in common water, filters it through a pure and compact cloth, so that the faeces remain apart,& all that has passed through transfusion, let it evaporate in a glazed earthenware pot, so long that it gets a little skin; by this means enough water will be exhaled, and the rest will be completed by the following process.

Form balls of mud where there is no sand, the size of Pigeon eggs, dry them & redden in the fire, in a vessel, when the greasy spirit of the earth will be burned; then soak them in strong water of salt, so that they remain there for a few hours, and receive in them as much salt as they can attract, then you will remove them and dry them. With this we fill the retorts, we set the fire below by certain degrees, & we make it so violent that no more smoke comes out of it; then the whole spirit is sublimated as much as possible. The container must be of glass, and very capable, in which a little water must be poured, because of the spirit, so that it can attract it; & when the distillation being finished it will have been received in a lutee cucurbite, it will be rectified:then the water or the phlegm (which you can again pour over the spirit in another distillation) will pass, and then a pure & sweet spirit, clear & transparent; at the bottom will remain a bitter salt, which will have to be thrown away, and on the contrary the spirit will be preserved for the use which will soon be taught. That if we want to have a purer and more effective spirit, we can redistill it by reiterating on calcined pebbles reduced to powder, the faeces of which remain at the bottom of the vessel, and the spirit becomes clearer, especially since the pebble was previously water and salt, and that is why they have such a great affinity together. One notices with the Glassmakers, that the sand or pebble is reduced to a transparent flux, if it is necessary to make good glass;because salt dissolves sand, pebbles, & the crystals in the fire, & receives with them the essence of the glass, even these species are resolved into glass by means of the Alkali salt, of which I have amply discussed in the third Part of my Fourneaux.

When we distil again on pulverized pebbles the aforesaid spirit of rectified salt, by the natural love which it bears to said pebbles, it draws a part of it upwards, and becomes much more excellent in universal use against diseases, especially against dropsy, calculus, and gout. The pebbles which remain at the bottom also give water which has the acidity of the spirit of salt, being nothing but a frozen part of the said spirit, and one can use it on all occasions as of this sublimated spirit.Let no one be surprised that I attribute more virtue to it when ground with soft pebbles than to the common spirit of salt. Few people know what virtues are hidden in the stone & in the sand. The Geese have knowledge of it which Men have not, although it is pointed out to them. If the geese didn't know that sand helps digestion, they wouldn't pick it up; & if the old women they feed them didn't know it too, they wouldn't give it to them in their water. All the birds, and many four-footed beasts, use it. Several people use pebbles & pulverized crystals to fortify the stomach: Hens swallow sand & gravel, to generate the shell of their eggs; & having no sand, they make shellless eggs.Wherefore I say loudly, that this spirit of salt being drawn upon pebbles, is ordinarily better for diseases, than the common spirit, over all the crystals or the coagulated salt spirit of which I have made mention above. Enough about the preparation of the spirit of salt. We will now teach how to use it on sea & on land to quench thirst & cure disease. Having already said what it is fit for outside Medicine, my purpose now is to declare the profit it brings in Ships; which gave rise to this Treaty. Enough about the preparation of the spirit of salt. We will now teach how to use it on sea & on land to quench thirst & cure disease.

Having already said what it is fit for outside Medicine, my purpose now is to declare the profit it brings in Ships;which gave rise to this Treaty. Enough about the preparation of the spirit of salt. We will now teach how to use it on sea & on land to quench thirst & cure disease. Having already said what it is fit for outside Medicine, my purpose now is to declare the profit it brings in Ships; which gave rise to this Treaty.

Of the use of the spirit of salt in ships against thirst and scurvy .
Firstly, this spirit is useful to the body, when a small quantity is thrown into the water which sailors and soldiers drink, giving it an acidity almost like that of wine, suitable for quenching thirst, and correcting it so that when drunk too quickly it cannot cause scurvy, prevents it from becoming dirty, black, rotting, and producing worms, as happens on long voyages; for water which contains the spirit of salt cannot be corrupted, and prevents other things from spoiling. And especially since water, becoming acidic by means of the spirit of salt, quenches thirst better than that which has none, so it is not necessary to make such a great supply of it for the trip, as we did, and if we carry a lot of it, there is the appearance that we will not be at fault.The spirit of salt preventing corruption, it prevents scurvy from arising, it restores & rejoices man with marvelous vigor, strengthens the ventricle & all parts of the body, it consumes phlegm & pituite in the kidneys & in the bladder, pushes urine & calculus, keeps the stomach free, aids digestion, suffers no languor from corruption of blood, to which seafarers are subject. If one mixes a little of it in the wine or in the beer which is in the ship, it preserves it in its goodness and sincerity, and gives it the property of better quenching the thirst. It can even be used to preserve beef, mutton, or veal for a long time, provided that, being put in stone pots, salt is put on top which has been dissolved in this spirit. However, they must not have many bones.A little of this spirit being put in the water to cook the fish, makes it firmer & tastier than if they were sprinkled with vinegars. Thus we can soften grapes cooked in water where there will be this spirit; by this means they will swell and acquire a pleasant taste, as if they had just been picked.

To say in a few words what is truth, this spirit can be applied to all uses for all kinds of food, whether for drinking it or for eating it in the Ships. But besides that, if during the hot weather one only drops a drop on the tongue with a little lucre at sea, it refreshes the mouth and quenches the thirst, so much so that one does not need to have recourse so often to water or beer, the body of which is more damaged than it is fortified. That if the water runs out during the length of the trip, a little more salt spirit should be poured in to give it a pleasant acidity; for of this strong it will better quench the thirst in a small quantity, than it would do in a larger one.And even if the Vessel were to perish in such a way that it was necessary to have recourse to the Skiffs to save itself, provided that we had a little spirit of liquid or coagulated salt, it could preserve the life and health of sailors, until God gave the means to land; & would prevent one from being forced to drink one's own urine, or sea water, which are harmful. Here are the virtues of the spirit of salt in navigation, and brevity is the reason why I do not declare them all. Besides, I thought of finding a way to make even the water of the sea soft & drinkable by precipitation, so that then we could never have lack of water in the Ships.And at least I succeeded, in that I precipitated a good part of the salt from the water, which has become much softer, but I have never been able to remove it entirely, and there is always some saltiness left. However, in case of necessity, we could use this water in ships to cook pitches and beans, or for hunger, to skim on concentrated wheat, because then it would receive more salt by fermentation, & we could use it without danger in necessity since the liquor of wheat is sweet, & that it does not tighten the stomach, even it would benefit as much as could harm the sea water being in some way sweetened by precipitation. I think of discovering something finer with the grace of God, & I believe that I will succeed;if that happens, I will gladly communicate it: now I will show how salt water from the sea can be made into fresh water, and good to drink. There's a kind of mineral called Mary's Ice.

It is not Muscovite glass, as some imagine. When it is reddened in the fire, and thrown into the water of the sea, it is suddenly reduced to a tender and very white powder. This being done, the vessel filled with sea water, in which the ice of Mary has been extinguished, must be stirred promptly; then the powder attracts part of the salt to itself, & descends to the bottom of the vessel, & the water remains clear: that if you repeat this work two or three times, the water becomes indeed sweeter, but not quite drinkable.Saturn's salt also brings down a lot of salt from the sea water, but it does not make it safe to drink. The best way I know of is this one, but it costs a lot; when, however, we are reduced to necessity, we must spare nothing to avoid death. This is why as a precaution it would be advisable to bring in the Ships a little of this precipitation in case of necessity & need. If you don't need it, you can take it home, since it doesn't spoil, & as good after a hundred years as the first day you prepared it. But it is not necessary to divulge this secret; if anyone wants to, let him come to my house, and he will be satisfied.For those who are versed in Chemistry, I want to tell them that this precipitation of the salt which is in the water must be done by means of a particular sand, which causes not only the salt to go down, but all the phlegm and all the impurities, so that the dirtiest and most marshy water becomes as clear as fountain water, especially since the bad smell and the bad taste are precipitated together . The same can be done of all other beverages, like wine & beer, the precipitation sending to the bottom all the filth, color & bad smell. And not only red beverages by artifice, but crystals that are naturally red, become clear & transparent. Which can bring a lot of usefulness to wine sellers.It is true that the sea waters usually become sweeter when they are carried very far by the common sand, which drinks up the salt of the said waters. For as these two things are generated from water, they have a great affinity, and even they are similarly reduced to glass by means of fire.

This is why no man has experienced that the sweetening of sea water by means of prepared water is based on reason and suitable to nature. This invention deserves the name of a very excellent art, since it can save our lives, by converting salt water into fresh water in quantity: it is better, however, not to come to an end, but to store up the spirit of salt in time. Because by this means a little water will do much more effective than common quantity of water.This is what I now wanted to declare to the public; & if I know that it will be agreeable to him, I will instruct some honest man versed in chemistry what to do for the above remedy against the diseases that occur at sea, & for the spirit of salt against thirst, for the concentration of wheat against hunger, & for sands suitable for precipitation ; he will prepare all things & distribute them at fair prices.

The other Alexipharmaques like my mineral electuary, the spirit & the crystal of salt, can also be used not only at sea against fever, Scurvy, & other diseases, but also on land, in any place whatsoever. Although I have previously spoken of various excellent remedies, and especially of the panacea in the second part of the Spagyric Pharmacopoeia, I prefer my mineral electuary to this one, seeing the convenience of using it, taking from the box with a knife as much as is needed, without the need of any vehicle, such as wine, beer, and others which are necessary for the use of the panacea. We do not even need to weigh the dose, but we discern it visibly according to the age and strength of the patient. He who is in the vigor of his age should take on an empty stomach the size of a pea,& stay a few hours without handling, & do not expose yourself to extreme cold or extreme heat. You can use it every week 3 or 4 times, depending on the need.

That if a grain does not operate, two must be given amounting to 3, or 4, a small dose gives much strength, a greater cause stools & sometimes vomiting according to the moods it encounters. This remedy having sought well in the belly, it makes a good evacuation of it; if he finds salt humors, he purges them by sweating, spitting and urinating. In a word, the blood is perfectly pure, opens all the obstructions of the principal internal parts, such as the liver, the spleen, and the lungs, prevents the growth of all sorts of apostumy, both inside and outside, consumes the fluxions and catarrhs ​​which fall on the eyes,on the teeth, and on the ears, completely drives out the pox without fomentation, provided that it is taken from within, as also leprosy, gout, dropsy, epilepsy, of young and old people, pushes out the calculus of the kidneys and the bladder, exterminates all kinds of fever, heals perfectly all wounds and ulcers both external and internal, being taken internally with a suitable diet. Finally, I repeat that this medicine is suitable for all curable illnesses, and which are not too inveterate. That if the evil has cast such deep roots through time that it cannot be chased away, then this remedy at least relieves & makes the pains lighter & more bearable, prevents them from increasing further, & on the contrary it diminishes them.It cures all scabies & scabs arising from the corruption of the blood, without any external ointment or liniment, having only to take it internally. If I wanted to run through all the marvels of this remedy, this book would become too big, what is most excellent in it is that it operates without anyone realizing it, that it chases away all malignancies, and happily heals those who, having been mistreated with the pox, have suffered some contraction of nerves. He who uses it as a precaution every week or every fortnight will not be subject to pain in the teeth, ringing in the ears, or the fluxions of acrid humors on the eyes. It even cures catarrhs, fistulas, inveterate cancers & which are almost incurable, & generally combats all that harms the health of the human body.For which reason all both poor and rich, those who undertake a long sea voyage, and who have no Doctors, should stock up on them to use as needed.

Anyone who has even half an ounce of it will have an antidote & a preservative against many diseases for over a year. A Ship going to India which will carry half a pound of it could save the lives of many people. I have done my duty, I will be glad to have my good will recognized; if it is not, I will at least have the satisfaction of having discharged my conscience. A Ship going to India which will carry half a pound of it could save the lives of many people. I have done my duty, I will be glad to have my good will recognized;if it is not, I will at least have the satisfaction of having discharged my conscience.

A Ship going to India which will carry half a pound of it could save the lives of many people. I have done my duty, I will be glad to have my good will recognized; if it is not, I will at least have the satisfaction of having discharged my conscience.

Now we must describe the virtues of salt outside navigation. For what is profitable to seafarers is not harmful to those who dwell on land. Now it can be used everywhere with wine, beer or other ordinary drink, but especially in these humid regions, where scurvy is the common disease, so that there is hardly a family that is exempt from it. A small, very clear beer is made from it, which opens the urine ducts, prevents kidney stones and bladder stones from growing, even gives a very pleasant taste to wine, removes superfluous tartar, and precipitates its substance to the bottom; so that the wines of Spain and France acquire a clarity similar to that of the wines of the Rhine.

Prevents wines from growing and molding, and protects them from a number of accidents.The wines of France, as they are sold in certain places, have neither the odor nor the flavor of wine, as the wines of the Rhine have; but the spirit of salt is able to communicate them to them, so that they can be called COS wines because of the pleasant color, smell & fade. The very wine which has been improved by this means will keep for several years, although otherwise it can hardly keep for two years. One can also by the spirit of salt remove from honey a natural flavor which is not very pleasant, & precipitate its impurity, so much so that it will be made an excellent drink & which yields to no other for health. Without lying here is a marvelous invention, and which must be practiced in these places, where there is no belief in wine.For the honey being well prepared, and stripped of its disagreeable taste, is a comforting balm. Whereupon this old soldier was right to reply to Alexander, who asked him how he had reached great old age: inside the honey, outside the oil. Many are well aware that honey possesses great virtue; but that one has an aversion to its bad taste, which is carried away by the spirit of salt, so that being thus prepared as a drink, it is as good as the best wine. With this advantage that the father of the family can use it in all seasons of the year, & keep this nectar for several years as if it were Rhine wine, without it costing much, which is a great relief to those who do not have enough to buy wines.And the most admirable thing is that everyone can make it take on the taste that it pleases, the main part of the art consisting in making honey lose its, bad taste by the spirit of salt, then to compose of it wine or beer, which will preserve its goodness and its clearness ten or twelve years ; by putting hop water instead of common water, to dissolve it with the honey purged of its faeces, and according to the diversity of the taste one can mix other herbs there, as it is customary to do in wine and beer.

But above all, you have to be careful not to mix in any salt if it is not rectified, especially since it would make the taste unpleasant, and would spoil the drink: which I did not have to keep quiet for the instruction.The spirit of salt must be prepared & rectified by the aforesaid manner, or by others which are found in my writings. Because the way it is prepared today & sold in shops it would be of no value for correcting wines, being very disagreeable to the taste, and making the wine rather dark, red & disagreeable, than clear & pleasant. It should be noted that it is not necessary to pour the spirit of salt into the vessels which contain the wine or the beer, but that it suffices to keep it in a small glass, and pour a few drops of it when one wishes to drink it.So much so that everyone can make a drink to their liking, & even use it in fountain water to soak wines during the heat of the heat wave: for if a few drops of this spirit are poured into a jug of water, it will receive a very pleasant acidity, not much different from natural acidic waters, serving as a gentle refreshment to the liver & blood inflamed by the heat of the season, it will even quench thirst, without the need to burden the stomach with too much wine or beer .

The rectified spirit of salt is salutary, especially since it is of a warm and temperate nature, it consumes the rawness of the stomach engendered by the intemperance of drinking and eating, pushes out the urine, purges the kidneys, the bladder, the ureters of all pituitary and coarse humor, exterminates the tartar which has formed adhesion, pulps the dropsy by the stools, and by the urine, opens the obstructions of the liver, the spleen & lung, fortifies the stomach, & generates good & vigorous blood. If you mix a little pure steel in this spirit of salt, it acquires an acidity similar to that of the waters of Spa which grow near Liège; & if you take a bit of it, it makes the stomach free & evacuates the excrement, of which man conceives vigor,Now all the more so since there is danger in carrying this spirit of salt with you, if by chance and negligence the glass in which it would be contained, were to break, being penetrating, before being mixed with the drink, it would spoil the pocket or the clothes on which it would be spilled. This is why I thought it appropriate to coagulate it in the form of salt, so that it could be carried in paper, or another similar receptacle, and that the fragility of glass would not be feared. Being thus coagulated it will not only be useful to those who go on horseback or in carriage, but also to those who go on foot & who make long journeys, even in wars, & who are forced to drink marshy & marshy, dirty & stinking waters, from which they contract dysentery,& other diseases that cause it to die like flies. It often happens that a traveler during the heat of summer drinks the first water he encounters, which spoils his liver without quenching his thirst.

And if he only put in his cup the size of a pea of ​​this salt, he would be more quenched by drinking it once than if he drank a quantity of other liquor. But although this spirit or this salt is very useful to all kinds of people, it is however more useful to seafarers and soldiers who very often perish rather from lack of water than from the sword. The General of the army, or the Master of the Vessel, who are so much inconvenienced by the illness of their people, and who are obliged to spend so much for their preservation, would they not do much better to prevent these movements,inexpensively? An army general will sometimes lead ten, twenty, thirty thousand men, who through intemperate eating and drinking come to fall into serious illnesses and if fever or plague sets in among his troops, for lack of this electuary, this spirit of salt mixed with sugar, they will perish miserably. But avarice possesses most men so strongly that they would rather die than stock up on some excellent remedy to relieve them. They indulge in pride and other vices, and love nothing but their own interest. they will perish miserably. But avarice possesses most men so strongly that they would rather die than stock up on some excellent remedy to relieve them. They indulge in pride and other vices, and love nothing but their own interest.they will perish miserably. But avarice possesses most men so strongly that they would rather die than stock up on some excellent remedy to relieve them. They indulge in pride and other vices, and love nothing but their own interest.

Physicians, both ancient and modern, have always attributed great virtues to the spirit of salt, both externally and internally. If common salt is so excellent that it preserves the living bodies and the dead of men and women; what will his spirit not do, which is salt purified and corrected by fire? It will keep all rotting animals better than common salt, and does not excite thirst like raw salt, but on the contrary drives it away; as I more exactly stated in the second & third Part of my Fourneaux. And so that the friendly Reader sees that I am not the only one who celebrates the praises of the spirit of salt, I will put here those which the very learned Doctor Conrad Khunrath gave him in his Moëlle distillatoire printed in Hamburg in 1636 in these terms.

The main & very effective virtues attributed to the spirit of salt, commonly called oil of salt.

The spirit or oil of salt has not so much acrimony as common salt, nor so much acidity as the spirit of vitriol; but its taste is almost like the juice of wild apples, approaching however sweetness. Its virtue is to discuss, dissolve, consume, dry up: it does not heat up excessively, but it is of a temperate nature, migrating & fortifying all together the natural heat, which it increases, & drives out all that is contrary to nature; it preserves the state of healthy humours, being very useful mainly to phlegmatics, for whom it consumes viscous humidity, prevents fluxions of the brain, and all the diseases which come from pituitary; even those who will use it properly, they will find that they have recovered new strength.

Experience has shown that when administered to epileptics in good brandy, it promptly relieved them.

Against apoplexy & paralysis, loss of speech, tremor, palpitation & heart failure, against plague & infection of the air, by putting half an ounce of the above-mentioned spirit or oil of salt, with two ounces of violet juice, & as much juniper electuary, & giving them to the patient in the morning on an empty stomach, after having stirred them well in a stone box.

It facilitates labor for pregnant women, and greatly benefits those who have delivered themselves without any danger.

If someone wants to keep his natural heat, he often uses this alexipharma.
If someone finds himself burdened with superfluity of humors, and he wants to be relieved, he must daily take this spirit in wine, or other vehicles.
It is clean for the chest filled with cold humours, & clears up the cough & the asthma caused by these fluxions.

It dissolves, consumes, & dissipates the mass that has been made in the ventricle; & although it does not by itself give much food, it nevertheless gives a good appetite, & aids digestion.

It is specific to obstructions & hardness of the liver & spleen, although inveterate; cures the other evils which come from it, such as are jaundice, dropsy, melancholy, hypochondriasis, pains in the sides and in the bowels, and all that comes from the winds and flatuosities. Above all, it dissipates dropsy, and the aqueous tumors which occur on the genital member and on the thighs of dropsical and consumptive patients.

He takes away their thirst, which is a great torment in these diseases; so that they are completely quenched, & can pass a few days without drinking: And for this effect it is necessary to take every day of this spirit in absinthe or in excellent wine; & if you want to mix in a little wormwood salt, it is beneficial from the outside, by rubbing the diseased parts; & drives away even rotten fevers.
It dissipates the pains of colic engendered either by the winds, or by the viscosity of the humors, or by the vehemence of the cold; it exterminates the worms, opens the ducts of the internal viscera; & softens the belly, being only taken by mouth, or applied externally. It is used in enemas forlenteria, dysentery, & haemorrhage; it is good for nephritic diseases, and for chasing away the stone of waking. We give a few drops every day in good wine to those who are suffering from hernias and enteroceles. It is made into liniments with ligature to apply to the bubonocele, and the patient is cured in a few days.

It exterminates all worms from the body, and removes their root and seed.

It is a very effective preservative against the plague, and a sovereign remedy for those who are infected with it; as also to those who have eaten poisonous mushrooms, or opium; to those who have been bitten by snakes, vipers, & similar insects, both internally and externally, especially as it consumes poisonous moisture. It is applied topically to hornet bites.

Plump women, & who have filth of superfluous humor in the womb, use it usefully, especially since by its means all the redundancy of phlegm is purified, consumed, & dried up; so that the seed can better be received in the womb & cause fruitfulness.

It is made into excellent eye drops for the growths of the eyes, suffusions, pustules, spots, glare, and darkness.

If anyone's eyes are livid from the bruise, he has only to put on a cloth dipped in this spirit or oil of salt, or dissolve in this oil a little myrrh with a little honey. This spirit makes the skin of the face more beautiful & more polished, & for this purpose it can be used with wine or water suitable for this. Hissing, ringing, & pain in the ears, even when they become ulcerated, & shed pus, are cured by this remedy. We make it drop by drop, being carried out with vinegar.
It is sovereign against the ulcers which are born in the mouth of children who are at the breast, against the tumor of the glands of the cervix, the impurities of the tongue, the pain of the teeth, being mixed with skimmed honey; against the evils that happen to the breasts of women; against scabies, pruritus, scabs, both externally and internally.

Being externally applied, it reduces to maturity & suppuration venereal ulcers, & others. It cures what is called herpes, which penetrates to the bone; as well as poisonous apothems, called cacoethes, corrosive ailments of the genitals, fluores & ulcers, by mixing it with white wine & barley flour, of which a plaster is made to put on it.

Being mixed with the said rue juice, & applied to the cankers, it performs a marvelous operation; as also in fomentations & epithems on sprained & contracted limbs.

To remove warts, it is mixed with calthe juice; to also remove the corns from the feet, having cut them after the bath, & rubbed with the aforesaid spirit. It shows wonderful virtue in erysipelas, rose, or sacred fire, being put on with elderberry vinegar.

It heals the cracks of the hands & feet which have been caused by the vehemence of the cold. It is very suitable for restoring strength and vigor to limbs that have suffered weariness, if rubbed well before the fire.

All, catarrhs ​​& cold fluxions which fall into the arteries & into the joints, & cause gouts, sciatica, podagra, chiragre, &c. are consumed by this spirit, being taken internally in suitable vehicles, & applied externally to the diseased place. By this means the sweetnesses are softened, and the calluses or hardnesses discussed, mainly if it is mixed with oil of vitriol, oil of turpentine; wax, chamomile, rubbing the diseased parts. And when the limbs have contracted by fluxion, it is necessary to use suitable fomentations with this oil of salt, & others aforesaid, &c.

Rotting sometimes happens to the external wounds, and very painful excrescences of flesh, which are quickly duped by the anointings of this oil.

Besides that it should be known that besides the virtues that this spirit has in Medicine, it has marvelous ones in Chemistry, because it dissolves gold & precious stones, corals, etc. so much so that after being made drinkable, they can serve as an excellent remedy. I will not say the processes here; but whoever learns them in my distilling work, he will discover marvelous secrets, &c.

The virtues of the spirit or oil of salt, in which gold has been dissolved & made drinkable.

Philosophers and Physicians attribute many excellent operations to the spirit of salt, in which gold has been dissolved or made drinkable, being a very sovereign remedy for all infirmities, even for the failures which occur to the dying, to give them a little more vigor, provided only two or three drops are given in good brandy. That if three drops of it are given every week in brandy, or in very good wine, it renews the man & rejuvenates him, changes the white hair with the fair ones, produces a new leather, & preserves him in perfect health until the hour that God has prescribed for him.

This is word for word what this famous Chemical Physician said in his Book entitled Molle distillatoire, &c.

Now everyone can easily conjecture that this man, although very experienced, did not yet know all things, and that he wrote only those of which he had knowledge. He is assured that he can still do more by this spirit of salt than he has said. As for the potable gold which is made with the said spirit, there is nothing truer; for I can say without vanity that having handled coal for a long time, I have known by experience the admirable operations of this potable gold made with the spirit of salt; that is why I will speak about it at length, so that such an excellent Medicine may be manifested for the benefit of the human race.

The gold liquor mentioned here is composed of the finest & purest Sun, & the best purified & concentrated spirit of salt;for the Sun being first melted by antimony, & purged of its faeces, then being dissolved in royal water, & precipitated with mercury by means of sweetening it is reduced to a subtle lime, which being well reddened in the fire is dissolved with a strong oil of salt, & well prepared. This lime being dissolved, if we remove part of the spirit of salt from it, there remains at the bottom an extremely yellow golden liquor, which should not be used in this state, especially since the oil of salt contains in itself too great acrimony.

It must therefore be mixed with a spoon in beer, wine, or hot broth, so that the corrosive spirit of salt is thus blunted, and that it does not harm the patient by its excessive acidity.That if we want this oil to be more agreeable to the taste, we can give it as wine, beer, and even soup, with melted sugar, or rose syrup. Because it does not matter from the vehicle. An old man should not take more than two or three drops; that if he feels that they do not work enough, he can increase the dose, as long as he knows his operation at the following signs. First one feels some nausea from the ventricle, when this golden oil has encountered some bad pituite there, and expelled it through the stools. Secondly, the excrement is black as coal;& the disease goes two or three times to the stool without constraint or necessity as it is accused in purgations, when the urine is cloudy, especially since the medicine dissolves the tartar in the kidneys & in the bladder, & removes it little by little. It should be noted, that by the blackness of the excrement one drinks easily that gold can be radically dissolved & changed in the ventricle of man, which some deem impossible. The human stomach has more power for the destruction of things than the fiercest fire; as it is seen in this meeting, even all that is eaten & drunk is changed in twenty four hours. If man can do this why can't art?And it is from there that one proves that the colors of gold appear well only when it is dissolved & destroyed radically: because blackness holds as the first rank between the colors, & contains in itself all the others hidden & concentrated. Note well that these black excrements should not be thrown away, & that the gold being radically dissolved, should be separated from it again, with which, perhaps, marvelous effects could be produced.

I once gave this golden oil to a child for eight or ten days, to drive out of his body the Mercury which had been given to him inappropriately against worms: I had recommended that the excrement be kept for me to make some test of it; but as they had remained a long time, and worms had been generated from them,I had them planted at the roots of a new vine, which, being only two years old, and not yet capable of producing grapes, produced a small one which had large pips, and golden spots in the form of stars, which we saw with great admiration. This example deserves great research. For me I am of this opinion, that the urine of those who continually comes from the aforesaid golden liquor, must also be golden, although this is not noticeable in the color. There is no doubt that men attracting a secret virtue from gold in the use of this medicine, the gold which is found in their excrement must be said to be better than common gold.

Divine Providence has well ordered all things.When the food is corrupted in the stomach of the animal, nature retains a little of it for food, the rest goes down, but it is not so contemptible that it does not have some property. For if these excrements being mixed with earth, & watered with rain, are exposed to the air, they will produce of themselves without any other seed a quantity of small herbs. That if you mix some seed with it, there will come fruits of the same quality; & as the multiplication of herbs can come from this source, perhaps could also come from that of metals. Putrefaction must therefore precede multiplication; what Our Savior Himself said to these Disciples in these terms.(If the grain of wheat does not fall into the ground, & does not die, it remains alone, that if it comes to die, it brings back much fruit.) Gold as in the metallic tree [symbol of the Sun] represents the nature of a yellow & round seed: [symbol of the Moon] the white flowers of a lily: [symbol of Venus] the shape of the green leaves: [symbol of Mars) that of a black & hard stump: [symbol of Jupiter] a grid bark almost resembling this stump: [symbol of Mercury] a clear & silvery juice which grows between the bark & ​​​​the stem, & provides food: [symbol of Saturn] finally a black root; & that however none of these members represented in the tree can be multiplied, although it rots or that one puts it in the ground, the increase coming only from the seed; that being so, it would not be too out of reason to know how to separate the rotten gold from the excrement, in order to multiply it by means of art. Admittedly, I've never tried it. Who will do it. The Philosophers publish that the material of the stone must be sought in the manure & in the garbage, that it is dirty & despised by men &c. And this proverb can be interpreted as saltpetre. I wanted to add this little notice, in order to give occasion to someone to examine these things more carefully.



(reminder and confirmation of the symbols of the previous paragraph in the Latin version)


Moreover, it is certain that gold, being anatomized by the spirit of salt, and extended with other liquors, such as water, wine, beer, and the like, and taken by the mouth, dissolves radically and changes in the stomach. For it has been impossible for me to reduce the corporeal gold which was in the excrement, to its former & first substance. Which gives great subject to consider the effects of nature. And I think that one wouldn't waste his time trying to make progress on this occasion. It is an axiom of the Philosophers that art begins, nature ends, and leaves the work imperfect: but they do not say how to proceed. Nature has from the beginning elevated the mineral being or the first matter of metals, as far as was possible, that is to say, in perfection,she put her on the throne; Art has destroyed the very perfect body of the Sun by means of corrosives, and caused it to dissolve in the human body. That if we knew how to go further, this essence of gold that has been dissolved could easily be perfected & multiplied. But I do not pretend that my words pass for those of the Oracle of Delphi or for the leaves of the Sibille. Each will take as much as he thinks he needs. But I do not pretend that my words pass for those of the Oracle of Delphi or for the leaves of the Sibille. Each will take as much as he thinks he needs. But I do not pretend that my words pass for those of the Oracle of Delphi or for the leaves of the Sibille. Each will take as much as he thinks he needs.

As for the use of the remedy, it must be continued, as long as the body is entirely cleansed of the humors which caused the disease, without mixing any other strong medicine with it, for fear of preventing the operation of this one, which is excellent. However, one can give beforehand once or twice my panacea which I have dealt with in the second part of my Spagyric Pharmacopoeia because then one will see miraculous effects. First, it does all those attributed to the spirit of salt, the oil with which the gold has been dissolved being twice as strong as the spirit, since being duly prepared it dissolves the gold, and which the spirit does not do. This is the reason why this oil of gold, or potable gold, is much more useful in all diseases for which the spirit of salt is used.

This oil spreads its virtues better than the spirit, dancing that it is in it that the gold has been anatomized, & as it has a hot & dry property, it goes well with the oil of salt, which is also hot & dry in the same way. So much so that it powerfully resists any kind of corruption that can happen to the human body. No fever, plague, leprosy, obstruction of liver & spleen can take root there; the blood is purified of all salty moisture, there can be no heaps of the lungs, nor of other internal parts. This remedy dissipates stones in the bladder & kidneys, & generally all tartar & tasteful fluxions, it strengthens the brain, stomach, heart & nerves.It heats & penetrates the whole body in a unique way, drives out dropsy, removes all the venom from the phlegm that clings to the stomach, & expel them through the stools, over all the vapors of Mercury which have been an imperfect cure for the pox, & which have caused contraction of limbs, or paralysis, or which may cause it. She completely hands over all that is debilitated, taking it from within. It would cost too much to use it from the outside, and in this case you can add the spirit of salt to anoint the joints and soothe the pain.

This gold being taken from within perfectly strengthens all the members, gives them vigor & seems to restore their marrow, prevents the accidents which are caused by pituitary, by the plague, by ulcerations of the liver & for my, by the rotting of the blood, by Scurvy, dropsy, scabies, & other external diseases, like fistulas & others. For external use, the spirit of salt is good enough, in which steel is dissolved, it completely cures all the ailments of the mouth, tongue, throat, neck, which come from the pox, and which resist all other remedies. The gold liquor is truly better, & cures diseases incurable by other remedies, its operation & its strength consisting in its astringent virtue.If you mix a little sugar in it and rub it on the gum rotten by scurvy, this oil will suddenly cure it and strengthen the teeth. It is very sovereign to all convulsions, both external and internal, as well as to ruptures of the bladder and the navel, without any incision and other remedies, if it is taken from within, and if it is applied from the outside in the form of an epithema. It consolidates the wounds, brings a speedy cure to internal evils which consumes slowly, to contusions, and to convulsions. There is nothing in nature more astringent or more beneficial than dissolved gold. And especially since all wounds, both external and internal, require astringent remedies, there is no vegetable or mineral that is worthy of being compared to this gold.The solution of Mars is good after that of the Sun, having an astringent virtue, but not so great as the Sun, & conducted is not so pleasant, especially as it smells strongly of vitriol, & often causes vomiting. The other metals are also astringent, but it is not good to use them, especially since their virtue is led with vice. The Moon itself contains much vitriol, having a sour taste, otherwise it does not cease driving away bad humors; being put into liquor it is more disagreeable than common vitriol.

But that of gold does not suffer from bad qualities, and both in external and internal use it is beneficial to young people and to old people.It cures Epilepsy, & the fracture which occurs in the ligaments of the womb of women in labor, it promptly puts the dislocated parts back in their place. Finally, this remedy can be given surely in all kinds of illnesses, whether they arise from hot or cold causes, restoring new vigor, for which we should thank God. In addition to the above preparations, it is an excellent preservative against drunkenness, which causes all sorts of ailments. And for this reason all men should abhor it. But unfortunately drunkenness reigns everywhere, mainly in countries that produce a lot of good wines, it is there that it has become a custom, and that it is not considered shameful; the young men indulging in it as well as the older ones.If we only drank to rejoice, it would be bearable, but we go to excess. Each invites his companion, and he who drinks large glasses is more esteemed than a great philosopher. Wine, which is an excellent gift from God, is misused, and baby bottles spoil their health by the abuse they make of it.

For me, I believe that the man who dies from dint of drinking, does not come to a better end than a desperate man who hangs himself or who throws himself into the water through greed or some other unfortunate cause. A man who kills himself can only do so once; & maybe he wouldn't do it for a second if he could survive. But a drunkard commits the same sin every day, and does not think of his loss.As if he would one day find companions in debauchery in Paradise. It is an invention of the Devil to attract to himself the children of perdition, as it is seen by the confession of the Sorcerers, who say that he promised them to put them after this life in places where they would all have strong infamous pleasures. Someone may object to me, what interest have you in this, & why would you prescribe a remedy for drunkenness which is not a disease, but rather a pleasant diversion? I answer him, that if I was not certain that it is the greatest evil that can happen to the body & to the spirit, I would never have taken up the pen to trace these lines. Let the old & new stories be read;it will be found that the greatest misfortunes of the world have proceeded from this source. Therefore I will allege only a few of them in testimony of the truth. If Noah had not taken wine to excess, he would never have shown his nakedness to his children. If Lot had not been drunk, he would never have committed incest with his two daughters.

David would not have committed adultery with Bathsheba, nor had his faithful minister Uriah killed, if he had not been overcome by incontinence. If Samson & Holofernes had not committed debauchery, they would not have been deceived by women, I could tell a hundred stories of this nature, & show that drunkenness is the cause of a thousand evils: But experience shows it only too well.There are those who persuade themselves that they will not drink excessively when they are at the feast, but they insensibly commit themselves by eating good morsels. When the natural spirits are excited by those of wine, & make known the inclination of each one, people who love to drink take large glasses & empty them in turn to each other's health, where they lose their reason in doing so, & men are transformed into swine. Those in a quarrelsome mood engage in sedition and come to threats, and from threats to blows. Venetian spirits indulge in brutal pleasure &c. whence come fornications, adulteries, homicides, despairs. How many children have perished at the hands of these wolves, who do not know where to hide them!

I cannot tell all the misfortunes that come from debauchery. There are only those who have declared war on it, who know its turpitude, those who love it are blind, and do not see it. When there are many debauchees at a table, who are full of wine to the point of madness, a terrible noise is heard, they talk without listening to each other, they sing, they dance, and do actions that are quite indignant and unseemly, a sober man takes heed of all these ugly postures, and conceives an aversion to them. I am sure that if we were to think about it, we would withdraw from this brutal custom. Certainly the Turks would never have reached this greatness to which they have ascended, if the use of wine had been permitted to them;gambling, lying, lust, larceny, are the effects of drunkenness.

Young girls who love wine are apt to prostitute themselves, and old women to help them afford it. The drunken Soldier quarrels & strikes, the Monk makes himself ridiculous. For the rest, the wine reveals the secrets. And it is not without reason that the Sage warns us not to let ourselves be seduced by the wine which appears so beautiful in the glass, saying that the heart of the drunkard, and of the madman is in the mouth, and that the mouth of the Sage is in the heart. Our Lord does not recommend vigilance and sobriety to us in vain, especially since the enemy takes the opportunity of debauchery to harm us.For me, I hold that drunkenness is the most dangerous disease in the world, since it precipitates the soul and the body into an abyss of misfortune.

And in order not to further delay the affectionate Reader, I say loudly that the medicine of drunkenness is none other than the spirit of salt. For if one drinks powerful wines or even old beers, there is nothing in the stomach that can repress their subtle mind, whence it comes that the heat raises it up into the brain where it offends the sight, the hearing and the other senses, and of a healthy man makes him sick. That if one mixes a little spirit of salt, it opens the orifice of the ventricle, & prevents the spirits from rising, retains them & binds them, depriving them of part of their strength, it even quenches thirst, & makes wine odious. Especially since the more a man is altered, & the more he drinks, & consequently he gets drunk more easily.Wine being also mixed with the spirit of salt does not harm the liver so much; seen that as much as the wine warms it, the spirit of salt tempers and refreshes it; adds that the spirit of salt does not leave the wine long in the ventricle but pushes it out through the urine. And when the wine is promptly expelled from the body, it can only harm slightly:

Now this spirit of salt must be prepared in the aforesaid manner, seeing that otherwise it would not do this operation. When the wine pleases the taste, one does not stop drinking, as long as one is thirsty; this remedy therefore removing the alteration, each can be preserved in the right direction, and perform its function.There are few who reflect on the inconveniences that come from the debauchery where one wastes unnecessarily in a short time, what could be used to feed a family, & where health is weakened, so that the next day one is not able to discharge one's duty . Finally, drunkenness can only cause harm; so I believe I am working for the public good in discovering this remedy not only for those who drink wine, but also for those who drink beer. Especially since it does not leave either of them in the stomach for long, but expels it through the urine, and does not allow tartar to attach itself to the kidneys or the bladder;even beer is rendered by this means as agreeable to the taste as wine, and does not burden the stomach, as it does without the spirit of salt, which drives out flatus and rawness. Finally, drunkenness can only cause harm; so I believe I am working for the public good in discovering this remedy not only for those who drink wine, but also for those who drink beer. Especially since it does not leave either of them in the stomach for long, but expels it through the urine, and does not allow tartar to attach itself to the kidneys or the bladder; even beer is rendered by this means as agreeable to the taste as wine, and does not burden the stomach, as it does without the spirit of salt, which drives out flatus and rawness.

Finally, drunkenness can only cause harm;so I believe I am working for the public good in discovering this remedy not only for those who drink wine, but also for those who drink beer. Especially since it does not leave either of them in the stomach for long, but expels it through the urine, and does not allow tartar to attach itself to the kidneys or the bladder; even beer is rendered by this means as agreeable to the taste as wine, and does not burden the stomach, as it does without the spirit of salt, which drives out flatus and rawness. & does not allow tartar to attach itself to the kidneys or the bladder; even beer is rendered by this means as agreeable to the taste as wine, and does not burden the stomach, as it does without the spirit of salt, which drives out flatus and rawness.& does not allow tartar to attach itself to the kidneys or the bladder; even beer is rendered by this means as agreeable to the taste as wine, and does not burden the stomach, as it does without the spirit of salt, which drives out flatus and rawness.

The use of golden oil engenders a lion's heart, great courage, lively & robust flesh; all the parts of the human body become firmer, & by this means you do not feel the inconveniences of a bad bed; on the contrary superfluous humor softens, & gives painful feeling. If you touch a phlegmatic, he feels pain because of the pituite that dominates in his flesh: that if this pituite is removed, his limbs will become firm, & will take on new vigor. This is seen by manifest signs, when Scurvy arises in the mouth, being caused by salty phlegm; the teeth are loose, the gum sheds blood, the tongue & the inside of the lips are full of holes & pustules; & if you rub them with your finger, with a drop or two of this golden liquor,the gum becomes firmer, and the pustules are completely cured. This operation comes from the great astringent virtue of gold & the spirit of salt.

If it is used often, the phlegmatic will become bloody by the evacuation of superfluous humidity, the brain will be purified, so that even the meaning will be purer & more enlightened. For if the brain is charged with a cold and thick pituite, it cannot conceive of anything good, as we see by experience in the stupidity of phlegmatics, whose fatness and heaviness leads them to sleep and idleness. He who sleeps is half dead, and the phlegmatic passing for a sleeping person, he can only pass for a half alive man. If you pinch him even a little, he complains as of a great illness;but the man well constituted and of sanguine temperament, has sturdy limbs; and therefore this remedy is very commendable, since it gives the phlegmatic the strength of blood. Besides that, this golden oil rejoices the melancholy; especially as it unblocks the obstructions of the bowels, & purifies the blood. It also brings moderation to hot and bilious temperaments, by removing the black and adult blood, which precipitates them into anger and quarrels. It is certain that this remedy marvelously fortifies the heart and the brain. Now, the brain being purified, it conceives only good thoughts, otherwise man feels only confusion, madness and death.Those therefore principally to whom God has placed the command in their hands must try to preserve common sense and right reason, in order to dispense justice without error and without corruption. What judge will be able to pronounce a good sentence, if he is always offended by the darkness of the scoundrel and debauchery? He will never be able to form reasonable thoughts in a brain filled with vapors and humidity.

Drunkards always look dazed, because of the weight of their heads. Persons of sanguine temperament who have drunk wine to excess, as soon as they have slept, they recover in their first state; but the phlegmatic have a brain always full of viscous humors, which makes them heavy and tardy, so that this golden oil is very sovereign to them.When a heavy & phlegmatic head is purged, it is better than if the mercury were changed into gold; & when melancholy is purged, it is better than if the black Saturn were changed into the Sun. When the adult blood of a choleric is refreshed, it is as praiseworthy as drawing gold from iron. Without lying it is a good metamorphosis to put everything back in better condition. The greedy and dissolute man thinks he is well because he has a fresh complexion; but on the contrary, he is in very bad shape, since his mind is a slave to his body. This disorder comes from excessive drinking and eating, and therefore it must be remedied and sobriety embraced. I could allege here many stories for proverbs evils which intemperance causes.I will only recite one or two. It is said that there was a King so addicted to drunkenness, that when his ministers brought him an Ordinance to sign, he did not even re-read it. Whereupon the Queen, his wife, who was very careful, having taken care, she tried to inform the King of her error. She begs the Ministers to present to the King a Judgment condemning her for adultery, which he signed without inquiring who the accused woman was. The Queen waited until the next day when the King was fasting, and showed him that he had condemned her to death, although she was innocent.

This forced him to reflect on his misbehavior & to behave with more care & precaution.It is also said that an honest woman having been condemned by the King who had committed debauchery, she wanted to appeal; but as she had been told that there was no appeal from Sovereign judgments, she said very boldly that she called from the King, being drunk, to himself when he would no longer do so. So that the execution being deferred to the next day, it was absolved. These examples show us that there are drunkards who make amends; but there are also those who persist in their vice and become more dissolute. There was a voluptuous King who drank & ate excessively; one of his advisers wanted to show him the turpitude of his life;but he was so irritated by it, that he ordered the son of this Counselor to be tied to a tree, telling him that if with his bow he struck straight into the heart of his son, he could not reproach him for having gotten drunk; & that if he did not, then he would approve of his remonstrations; after which he pulled & pierced the heart of this child. Certainly it was a strange malice & stubbornness, instead of returning to the royal path of virtue & considering this axiom, That it belongs to men to fail, but that it belongs only to the Devils to persevere in sin. God only punishes stubbornness, and He forgives us, provided we make amends.I would not have enough paper, if I wanted to tell all the effects of the spirit of salt to correct the drink the Reader will find more in the vegetable work. I finish this speech, in the hope that I have that good people will find my work pleasant, although there may be some ignorant and envious Zoïles who will despise it: but that is the ordinary, and one must only remember the story of Christopher Columbus, who, having told his story of the discovery of a New World, was mocked in several Courts of Princes, until he was listened to in that of Spain. For me I have no other intention,

END.