THE MINERAL WORK

WHERE IS TAUGHT

The separation of Gold from Firestones,
Sand, Clay, & other Fossils, by the Spirit of Salt,
which cannot be done by any other means,

As also a Panacea,
or Universal, Antimonial Medicine
, & its use.


JOHANN RUDOLF GLAUBER


17th century

PREFACE TO THE READER

Doubtless there will be people who, not knowing the various Voyages that I have made or the other impediments that I may have had, will imagine that I do not wish, or that I cannot keep my word on having neglected until now the edition of certain treatises of which I have mentioned, there will be others who, knowing my nature and the calumny of my enemies, will imagine that I purposely keep hidden the things that I had promised. This is why I am resolved to keep my word, to make them see that I am not touched by the insult of these envious people & to those that I want to convince them by a sensitive demonstration by publishing & communicating to the public some of my secrets. Although the ingratitude of the world gives me occasion to conceal them,however the candor of my soul prevailed over this consideration. Besides that, I have been impelled by another reason, that there are certain ambitious Spirits, who boast of having the knowledge of my Secrets, which has caused many to be persuaded that my Writings did not come from me, but from some other, to whom they attributed the praise which was due to me; & it has often happened to me that those who have received a Secret from me have boasted of being its Inventors by the ostentation of vainglory. to whom they attributed the praise that was due to me; & it has often happened to me that those who have received a Secret from me have boasted of being its Inventors by the ostentation of vainglory. to whom they attributed the praise that was due to me;& it has often happened to me that those who have received a Secret from me have boasted of being its Inventors by the ostentation of vainglory.

There are also some who, having not completed their drawing, falsely accuse me of having written nonsense, but they should only blame their ignorance, and not my scholarly writings. All these considerations were capable of preventing me from bringing my Works to light, I wanted to do in favor of honest people. Thus I strongly maintain that my Writings are not nonsense, but very certain truths, that they are not either the inventions of others, but those of my mind: For the rest I warn you my dear Reader, that I do not imitate most of the Writers who study rather the ornament of the words than the doctrine but for me I only use a simple and naive style and seek only the utility of my neighbor: This is why I preferred to use the prolixity of the words,which is boring to delicate ears, than the patent which is ordinarily obscure; whatever is adorned with the figures of Rhetoric. I will therefore begin, after having invoked the Holy Name of God, my Work, which I have divided into three Parts, under the title of The Mineral Work. In the first it will be shown how gold can be extracted from sand and pebbles by means of the spirit of salt. Although this Secret seems of little importance, however, it is capable of nourishing the one who will use it, provided he has the knowledge of stones & sand, specific to this operation. which I have divided into three Parts, under the title of L'Oeuvre Minérale. In the first it will be shown how gold can be extracted from sand and pebbles by means of the spirit of salt.Although this Secret seems of little importance, however, it is capable of nourishing the one who will use it, provided he has the knowledge of stones & sand, specific to this operation. which I have divided into three Parts, under the title of L'Oeuvre Minérale. In the first it will be shown how gold can be extracted from sand and pebbles by means of the spirit of salt. Although this Secret seems of little importance, however, it is capable of nourishing the one who will use it, provided he has the knowledge of stones & sand, specific to this operation.

In the second it will be treated of the origin & generation, of metals, & of the death of both minerals and metals.

In the third will be shown the possibility of metallic transmutation for various reasons; which has not yet been done by anyone that I know of, it will be the foundation of all Metallic philosophy & like the Golden Crown of all my Writings. God grant that I can accomplish my plan to his glory, and to the usefulness of my neighbour.



THE FIRST PART OF THE MINERAL WORK


VERY PROFITABLE PROCESS

To separate Gold from loamy firestones, red & black talc, & other fossils containing in them a subtle & spongy Gold, which cannot be separated by any other means, either for the small quantity, or for the hardness of the Mineral or for its great expense. Which is very comfortable with the spirit of Salt.

Know first, friend Reader, that all kinds of sand, loam, fire stones, & other fossils, do not contain Gold, but only a few, without the knowledge of which this secret is worthless, & as much as the knowledge of this is very necessary to the Artisan, I want to show how they must be tested, in order to know if they contain Gold or not, so that you do not work in vain but on the contrary with utility.

The folly of men is marvelous, they always look for uncertain things & leave the certain ones, although they are exposed to everyone's view; for many in the desire to gain wealth work after uncertain things. Of a thousand, hardly one is found who achieves his purpose, although the metals can be perfected and purified; I mean imperfect & impure metals, so that good Gold & good Moon can be extracted from them, but this art is given to very few people & even everyone is not fit to come to the end of such work, especially since it requires an ingenious Artisan but things that are certain can be done with little cost & little work by a vulgar Chemist, if he is an ingenious man,This is why take good care in the extraction of the above stones, because if you think of extracting from them with the spirit of Salt of many kinds, which have no Gold, doubtless you will find no Gold there, & if you think of extracting some of them that they contain, & that you ignore its separation by the way of Antimony, you should not expect profit.

It is therefore first necessary to have knowledge of these stones, and after the separation by way of Antimony; this is why if you happen to miss, do not impute the fault to me, but to your only ignorance, for not knowing the extraction of gold, because I wrote rather clearly, even if there would be something forgotten; this is why I warn you to take good care of your work, otherwise it will be useless to you, because it is very certain that there are in many places stones, loam & sand, which very often have & contain much gold, & even though they do not have it in abundance, nevertheless it can be extracted with profit; but stones which contain much of it can be extracted with great profit. There are also rocks and mountains of gold,& great mountains filled with sand & loam full of gold, not returning what it costs to wash them, because of their too great rarefaction, sponginess & lightness, because in washing it, it goes away with the sand; nevertheless whatever it may be, it can be extracted from it with profit by the spirit of Salt, and by fixed and purified antimony: In a word, it is a secret by which a man cannot be harmful to another, as happens in other mechanical operations; this is why there is no man who should be ashamed to work there, because God in the beginning created gold in the ground & in the stones, so that all can extract it from there for the glory of his name, & the profit of our neighbor, even he did not forbid the true use this is why I say in truth that I described this Art here,although despised by the ignorant, it is of great profit & almost incomprehensible. Now consider it a little further & you will find in every place in the earth great treasures which can be had but which are not discovered because of ignorance. In truth all know that there are in various places (sand & loam, which contains gold, which for the above reasons is left fallow without being worked, but it can be so easily by my precepts.

There are also mountains of silver, from which silver cannot be extracted, because of the little weight it has; there is also found in many places a certain yellow or reddish earth, or similar to loam, which, although it contains much silver, cannot be profitably extracted by the aforesaid way; nevertheless it can be parted with profit not with the spirit of Salt, which leaves it untouched, but with something else which is found everywhere in abundance, of which for certain reasons we will not say anything here.

And this way of separation does much for the mining of copper which is not abundant, from which no profit could be derived by the ordinary way, to separate it from the copper & then reduce it to a better metal, or changing it to verdigris for lack of a better Art, which thing can very well & very honestly support more than a family. By this way one can separate slag, gold, silver & copper with profit, but as much as I have resolved to treat here only of the only extraction of gold out of stones, I leave with good reason to treat of the extraction of silver & copper to treat it elsewhere, because it must be done by another menstruation. If I want this demonstration to be approved, it will be followed by other very excellent ones.,But now I have undertaken a nobler way for the love of my Fatherland, by which it is plainly seen that though Germany is reduced to necessity, she is nevertheless rich enough, if she will only take heed of her hidden treasures. It is not necessary to present the hidden piece, for the demonstration suffices, it is not so good to present what is good to those who neglect it, for the ungrateful the best thing is not pleasing to them want to give in a few words the demonstration & ex-traction of these stones, not doubting that an expert & experienced Chemist, will profit from it & thank God, which the lazy will not be. she is nevertheless rich enough, if she only wants to beware of her hidden treasures.It is not necessary to present the hidden piece, for the demonstration suffices, it is not so good to present what is good to those who neglect it, for the ungrateful the best thing is not pleasing to them want to give in a few words the demonstration & ex-traction of these stones, not doubting that an expert & experienced Chemist, will profit from it & thank God, which the lazy will not be. she is nevertheless rich enough, if she only wants to beware of her hidden treasures.It is not necessary to present the hidden piece, for the demonstration suffices, it is not so good to present what is good to those who neglect it, for the ungrateful the best thing is not pleasing to them want to give in a few words the demonstration & ex-traction of these stones, not doubting that an expert & experienced Chemist, will profit from it & thank God, which the lazy will not be.

With regard to the above stones, from which the gold must be extracted, this is where the whole secret consists. All sorts of stones for the most part have an invisible, & sometimes visible & invisible, volatile & corporeal all together; but commonly many contain impure iron, similar to volatile Gold & some sulfur similar to copper.

The stones which the Germans call Quartzen & Hornstein contain pure & corporeal gold, whatever it is mixed with Moon & Copper, can be burned & crushed, & extracted with mercury, & if they abound in Gold can be purged by melting, this work is common to Miners, & to those who exercise themselves in metals: of which things I do not intend to speak, as others have written before; but for stones, Quartzen & Hornstem, which are found almost everywhere, which contain only a quantity of ferrous & marcasite Gold, whether fixed or volatile, it cannot be profitably separated from them by mercury nor by melting: this is why they are neglected by the Miners, either through ignorance, or because of the unbearable expense; but I have tried these despised stones,the description of which is given in the first part of my Fourneaux & below will be given a better one, if nothing prevents me & however use this one. That if by chance it happened that you could not come to the end of this aforesaid work, do not be ashamed to learn the manual operations, which cannot be described exactly by those who are experienced, otherwise you would waste the time and the expense, without it bringing you any profit, and as for these stones, know that there are many of them which are found in various places, mainly in sandy and mountainous places, but in some more and better than in others, because rarely are there is sand without stones, and often times the sand itself does not lack Gold; but there are very few of them on the banks of the rivers,because the water washing and carrying away the sand, reveals the stones in great abundance, although they are not so easily known from the outside, like those which are found clean in the sand, because they are covered with mud, this is why they must be broken with a hammer, in order to see what is in them; which will be known better, if they are burned and extinguished in cold water, because the stones which retain their whiteness after being reddened and extinguished, contain nothing; but if they become reddish, they show that there is something in them & the redder they are, the more their value they testify. because they are covered with mud, therefore they must be broken with a hammer, in order to see what is in them;which will be known better, if they are burned and extinguished in cold water, because the stones which retain their whiteness after being reddened and extinguished, contain nothing; but if they become reddish, they show that there is something in them & the redder they are, the more their value they testify. because they are covered with mud, therefore they must be broken with a hammer, in order to see what is in them; which will be known better, if they are burned and extinguished in cold water, because the stones which retain their whiteness after being reddened and extinguished, contain nothing; but if they become reddish, they show that there is something in them & the redder they are, the more their value they testify.

Now this should not be understood of sandy stones which redden in some place in the fire and which contain no Gold, but of stones from which fire is drawn by mutual percussion, which purer they are, and the more they contain purer Gold. There are also stones from which the fire is drawn from them by percussion which redden in the fire, & do not contain Gold but Iron which you will know by this light red that they have previously burned them, & being burned change into a dark red which does not shine & which is raw; but the stones which contain Gold being burned, acquire a golden yellow or reddish color, as if they were covered with Gold & this is found throughout the body, if they are broken into pieces;these give pure Gold but the others give an extraction red as blood, good for the uses of Chemistry, but particularly for exalting the Moon by cement, because for Gold it is rarely found there: which must be well observed, otherwise you will extract Iron for Gold & by this means will lose your work.

As also the best stones which contain Gold are those which are white & shining here and there through, having throughout their substance lines & spots of glass, red, yellow, blue, russet & brown. There are also black stones, from which fire is fired by percussion, containing Gold & Iron, from which they can be profitably separated, having sometimes much ferrous Gold in quantity, separable by art, as will be said hereafter.

The stones which retain a whiteness after being burned are very good, having green & blue veins & the like, as also those which after being burned have black spots without any veins.

But the stones, Quartz & Hornstein even though they are not altered by burning them, nevertheless if one sees volatile & spiritual Gold there before, of themselves they give Gold by the force of separation. Coarse & subtle sand, contains yellow Gold, throws out in burning it the smoke of blue color, & which is exalted in brown color; but that which does not alter contains nothing good. The subtle earth, yellow or red, passing through the sand or mountain, similar to a vein, also contains Gold which is most volatile & not dies, fleeing when wanted to reduce, having entered the Moon & other metals for this reason can be preserved.

And for the greater & sure knowledge, you can try the stones with fusible glass, which thing is treated in the fourth Part of my Furnaces, so that you do not have occasion to impute the fault of your error to me; this is why I want you to understand, that all stones do not contain Gold & that it is not separable in all by the spirit of salt: this is why you must know them before using them at work.


Now follows the preparation of the Stones & the extraction of the Gold which is in them by the spirit of Salt.

First, the stones being reddened in the fire, they must be quenched in cold water, after which they are drawn out while cold, and ground into a fine powder.

NB. When they are broken in the mortar the better part can be easily separated from the worse, for when they are in fine powder always if the better part goes into red powder first, & the bad being thicker and harder, contains very little or nothing at all: that if they are coarsely pounded & passed through a fine sieve the finest part will pass through the sieve into red powder, & what is worth nothing having remained in the sieve, like, a white powder which must be thrown away but there appears some redness it must be powdered again in the mortar & sifted, & the best part will pass into red powder, the rest must be thrown away but you must observe that all & each of these stones are not separable being beaten into powder because some,

Take stones prepared above & separated, 2, 3, 4, or 6 lbs & put them in a whole glass curcurbite, & pour above the spirit of salt, which floats three or four fingers, & put it on the sand or hot bath, so that the spirit of salt will extract the Gold & leave it like this for the space of five or six hours, as long as the spirit is dyed a thick red, & that it does not draws more dye. It could happen that at the first time, although rarely, it will not be dyed with such a great tincture, nevertheless you must pull it out by inclination, & put on other powder of stones, & do as said is in another cucurbite on the fire, to extract the Gold; that makes draw it by inclination, & pour it in another curcurbite where there is powder of fresh stones,

This done, put new spirit of salt on the stones which remained in the first cucurbit, & leave it so long on the fire as long as it is dyed, & that it has extracted the Gold which remained in the stones, which had not been extracted at the first time; draw it afterwards by inclination, & pour it on the stones reserved in the second curcurbite, & in the third, to extract the residue of the Gold, which had not been extracted the first time, & thus similarly to the others reserved, as long as the spirit of salt is sufficiently colored, & that it does not draw any more, tincture which you will draw out, & put it with the first reserved. You will again put new spirit on the remaining matter, in order to extract all the Gold & at the end put common water there,

This work must be so long & so often repeated, as long as neither stones nor spirit remain, & at the same time you will throw away the stones which have been extracted & washed, in order to fill the cucurbits again with new stones, & continue as this work says; & if you have no spirit left to continue the said extraction, you may separate the extracted Gold from the spirit, which thing is done as follows. You must first have a good quantity of glasses, or retortes, of the best earth, which can retain the spirits, which you will fill so soon with your tinted spirits, as long as the spirit in, the extraction does not flee above, what does, it must be extracted in a dry bath little by little out of the Gold,

But when you make the extraction out of red talc with the spirit of salt, red or black garnets, emery, calamine stone, or other fossils, which other fixed gold, contain a lot of gold which is not dead, and which is volatile; you must throw in the extraction a little iron, its see in the dissolution, which retains & fixes the gold which would otherwise flee in the fusion; this is why the dissolutions & extractions of talc, & other things containing volatile Gold, are better done with iron cucurbits, or with earthen stills, than with retorts of Glass or earth, especially since this Volatile Gold draws only what is necessary for the fixation; & this iron is then easily separated from Gold by Antimony, as will be taught below. This is to be noted,

And as for talc, it must not be extracted with excessive heat, otherwise all its substance would dissolve in the spirit, and would hinder your work, unless there is then little profit; this is why it is done, in order that this little Gold dispersed in a great quantity of talc, may be reduced to a small volume, for it is not necessary that all the talc be made fusible, so much as it would bring damage, but there is no danger to the stones, because the spirit of salt does not dissolve them, not as it does talc, but only extracts the Gold, the body of the stone being left in its entirety. The calamine stone must also be governed in another way; in the extraction & fixation, that garnets, stones, & talc,especially as it dissolves almost all in the spirit of salt it is a work of which it is not necessary to speak here, because it is particularly treated elsewhere of its extraction & fixation & I do not wish to treat of it here, but only of the extraction of Gold out of the flint stones which can be found everywhere, & it is the way of the extraction of the Gold out of the flint stones & sand by heat with the spirit of salt, to be done in vessels of glass, but it There is also another way, which is done without glass vessels, which I believe deserve s to be brought to light, so that with the above work you can choose the one you like. It is done as flees. You must have a number of well-cooked earthen funnels, which do not drink up spirits and failing them, you must have a very strong glass.It is also necessary to have a bench, with a number of holes to put the aforesaid funnels in it & below it it is necessary to place glass bowls, or basins to receive the spirit of salt.


The way of working through the funnels

You must put the funnels in the holes of the bench, then you must first put a large piece of stone in the narrowest part of the funnel, on which you will put smaller pieces, & on top of these still smaller ones as much as it takes to fill the narrow part of the funnel & the wide part must then be filled with stone powder, with the reserve of three or four fingers of stone for the spirit of salt, & by this means these large pieces which are at the bottom will prevent the fine powder from passing through with the fusion of the spirit of salt.

This fact, put on the stones which are in the funnel, the spirit of salt, the thickness of two or three fingers, which will work on the stones, & will extract the Gold, which will fall into the bowl or basin which is below & as much as most often it passes the first time from there powder with the spirit of salt, you must cohober the spirit on the stones, as long as the passage is blocked, & that the spirit comes out clear; this done, for the said spirit into the second funnel the stones, then to the third & like this following, as long as it passes, or as long as it is sufficiently dyed, which you will keep as long as you have a sufficient quantity, to be distilled by the retort, to separate the spirit from the gold when this spirit having passed through the stones of the funnels, according to the order,for again new spirit of salt into the funnels, according to the order, beginning with the first (as has been said) until the last; & when you will see that the spirit which passes is no longer tinted, it is a sign that all the Gold has been extracted from it then it is not necessary to put any more spirit, but common water, so that the water in passing draws up all the spirit of salt remaining in the stones, & that nothing is lost, which acid water being kept apart, serves for the same purpose as being done, pull out the extracted stones & fill the funnels with new stones as before, to be extracted, strengthened rant as long as you have stones & spirit but you must not mix the spirit which is not well dyed with that which is well colored with Gold,governed so that the spirit is not spoiled or lost & by this way many stones can be extracted with little spirit but it should be noted in the extraction which is done cold that the spirit of salt must be stronger than in that which is done by heat in the cucurbits otherwise business would not go well, but with a strong spirit, the extraction is done rather and is easier by the cold way, than by that which is done with heat & is not not so dangerous, so painful, nor so great an expense. This extraction therefore by cold requires a spirit of salt more powerful than that which is done by heat. than by that which is done with heat & is not so dangerous, so painful, nor so great an expense. This extraction therefore by cold requires a spirit of salt more powerful than that which is done by heat.than by that which is done with heat & is not so dangerous, so painful, nor so great an expense. This extraction therefore by cold requires a spirit of salt more powerful than that which is done by heat.

And it is here the way in which these Gold stones & other Gold fossils, are prepared & are extracted with the spirit of salt, which is also separated from them again, now I will show the way of the purification of the Gold which remained in the retort.

Pure gold being extracted from stones, not that which is ferrous, it does not need much work to purify it, for you can by fusion with borax, or with the flux which makes it equal parts of nitre and tartar; but the Gold which is extracted from the stones, and which is mixed with iron, as it is for the most part, it must not be melted by the flux, especially since it is not purified thereby, nor does it not make the Gold malleable, it must be separated by the Lead by which it will be purged and malleable, and if this Gold has moreover any sulfurous impurities mixed with it, it cannot be separated again by the Lead, especially since it is for the most part reduced to slag & other impurities by Iron, with loss;this is why it must be purged with three parts of antimony, and separated by this means nothing is lost.


The Means of Separating Impure Gold by Antimony.

It is very necessary to know this work if you want to have any profit from the aforesaid extraction of the stones by the spirit of salt which without this reduction & separation is of no value. And what profit, I beg you, can there be in the extraction of unripe gold which cannot be purged by the ordinary way, requiring an industrious Artisan in smelting, by which; it is separated from its superfluous faeces, & fixed, because it is easy to conjecture that such a spiritual & volatile Gold mixed with Iron, cannot be reduced to a body by a common flow, but rather to scoria, especially as experience certifies to us that Gold dissolves, with the spirit of salt & also iron, or another sulphurous thing;the spirit of salt being extracted cannot be entirely reduced by the vulgar flux made of nitre & tartar, because it goes to slag. What if this happens to pure fixed & corporeal Gold, could it be otherwise with that which is dirty, volatile & incorporeal? for Gold which is extracted from stones is ordinarily ferrous, & iron having a great affinity with Gold (by which reason being closely united they are hardly separated, & as it goes more easily with Iron into slag than it is separated from it);you must by necessity make a flux, which not only attracts Gold but which purifies and cleans it, which is done only by Antimony which with its combustible and fusible sulfur works easily on the Gold which is mixed with Iron, but by its Mercury it attracts to itself the purest corporeal Gold, cleanses it, and separates it from all dross without any loss, this is why a better flow cannot be found: It is true that it requires an industrious & ingenious separation of Antimony from Gold without losing Gold . Which is done as follows.

First take ferrous gold which was left after the extraction of the spirit of salt; put it in fine powder in a retort or iron pot, mix two or three parts Antimony in powder there, & mix them in a strong crucible, which is full & covered, & the bottom in our fourth furnace, as long as it flows like water; this being done, for it all together into a hot cone, joined on the inside with wax; & when cold, separate the regulus from the slag (which will have most of the gold) with a hammer, & set it aside; this fact, funds again the dross of Antimony (which contains a lot of gold) which was left in the crucible & put there seen little filings of. Iron; mingles with a hooked wire,& the combustible sulfur of Antimony will be mortified by the addition of Iron & will make a regulus which will contain the rest of Gold, having regard to the quantity of Iron which has been put, & there will be more or less slag ordinarily it responds weight for weight, to the weight of Iron then throw the mass, very fluent, in the hot cone, & joined inside with wax; Being cold, separated in derechef it regulates with the slag, with a hammer, which will also keep aside, funds of the slag as before & the precipites with iron, & in draws the regulates, which will also keep it apart, especially as it contains gold & moon mix together, because the best gold is precipitated at the first time, in the lowest site, & at the end only moon, that is to be kept separately,

And if Antimony loses its fusibility by the addition of Iron & it no longer casts a regulus, it is necessary whenever the precipitation is done by the addition of Iron, to throw a little nitre into it, in order to make the mass in the crucible to precipitate the regulus & while Gold & Moon being reduced to three, or four regulus it is necessary to keep apart the scoria which has been left of which will be spoken of below,


Follows the way to separate Gold & Moon from Antimony

The aforesaid antimonial regula can be purged in various ways, first by means of bellows on an earthen cupel, as is the custom of the Goldsmiths when they make Gold fusible by Antimony this work is tedious & cannot often be done without danger to health nor even in large quantities; that is why when one knows a better way, it is folly to practice that one. The regulus can also be purified with Lead by the cupel this work can be done in large quantities but it takes a lot of coal & Lead & Antimony cannot be preserved there. Now it can be done with profit better than by the above two ways, as follows. by which way Gold & Moon can easily be drawn.You can also melt them in a crucible & by the addition of certain salt separate Antimony from the Gold & Moon reducing the Gold to slag being separated they are purified malleable, whatever the easiest way, it is nevertheless very dangerous; because if you do not proceed with conduct, the salts spoil & wear out Sun & Moon a lot, & sometimes leave the Gold which is not malleable & force you to repeat your work. it is nevertheless very dangerous; because if you do not proceed with conduct, the salts spoil & wear out Sun & Moon a lot, & sometimes leave the Gold which is not malleable & force you to repeat your work. it is nevertheless very dangerous;because if you do not proceed with conduct, the salts spoil & wear out Sun & Moon a lot, & sometimes leave the Gold which is not malleable & force you to repeat your work.

But whoever intends to do it with nitre only, he can with great profit, in a short time, and in large quantities, purify the aforesaid regulates without losing Gold, Moon or antimony. There are also other ways of doing this which it would be useless to write down; therefore I want to teach the best of all, which is greatly beneficial in the separation of regulus in large quantities. It is first necessary to have a particular Furnace, with a fire almost similar to that of the first Part of our Philosophical Furnaces, which is built for the sublimation of flowers. It lacks the grid, but it must have small holes to light the coals, so that the antimony separating from the Gold is raised & sublimated to the sublimatory vessels.This Furnace being rightly built & heated, throw on it with a spoon as much regulus as the fire can carry, which will melt, quickly, & will rise little by little, the air being drawn through the holes without any difficulty, the regulus being sublimated, more must be thrown in, if you have any, until the regulus is entirely sublimated & separated from Gold & Moon, which are left in the fire pure & malleable. The Furnace being cold, we must remove the flowers & keep them for the use we expect. if you have it until the regulus is entirely sublimated & separated from Or & Lune, which are left in the fire pure & malleable. The Furnace being cold, we must remove the flowers & keep them for the use we expect.if you have it until the regulus is entirely sublimated & separated from Or & Lune, which are left in the fire pure & malleable. The Furnace being cold, we must remove the flowers & keep them for the use we expect.we will discuss below. By this way you will not only separate a large quantity of regulus out of Gold & Moon in a short time; but also you will keep antimony, which can be used in many uses of Alchemy & Medicine, with great profit: which is certainly a beautiful knowledge because not only can you earn a lot without harming your neighbor, but also help many sick people with this excellent Medicine made of flowers. It is a special gift from God, for which we have to give him immortal thanks, & it is here the best of all means to separate Gold from antimony that I know of, which is not only done in large quantities, in a short time, & at little cost but also without loss of antimony.


Follows the use of Antimonial Flowers

First, you may keep the whitest flowers which are in the lowest pot for universal Medicine with the salt of tartar & reduce the others which are not so pure into regule, which will be fit for various uses, as will be shown hereafter, or else you may mix them with equal weight of common sulphur, or antimony, which being mixed & put in a covered crucible & melted, they will render an antimony similar to the natural, good for purifying Gold or else mix them with other metals or minerals so that by this means they may be made better, or use them for Surgery, for they are the best stritycal plasters. Finally, one can use the above flowers in many things with good success & profit.

The antimonial dross may also be reduced to flowers, & for the same use, as also those which are made with the regulus, because in this fusion & separation of the Gold which has been extracted from the stones & from the talc, the only Gold which was dies & fixed, has been separated from the regulus; & the Gold which was not dead, & which is volatile, remained in the scoria, which is raised with the flowers. It therefore follows that these are better, both for Medicine and for metallic transmutation.

Or if you wish to add old Iron to the said Antimony & reduce it in the Furnace, & take the regulus containing Gold & Moon, which can be put to use in other Chemical operations, where regulus is needed, as will be shown hereafter, but the slag makes a regulus with a violent fire into a Furnace, with a particular separation by extraction, although it contains no Gold, it can nevertheless be used with profit: as if mixed with the 'Pewter in casting, it makes it hard & ringing, very useful for shaping various sorts of things, & which does not blacken so easily as common Pewter & if you don't want to, you can make weights of it to weigh.

Here we have dealt with the extraction of gold from fire stones, and its purification by antimony, now I want to teach you how the rest of antimony should be used both to perfect imperfect metals, and for medicine, both to preserve health and to cure disease.

But seeing that we have mentioned a universal Medicine made of Antimony above said, I do not want you to think that it can cure all bad weather generally without distinction, which is only attributed to the stone of the Philosophers, but not by me to this Medicine. I only attribute what I have experienced of it. I can assure you with truth that there is, after the Stone of the Philosophers, almost nothing comparable to it; for it not only preserves the body from various illnesses, but happily frees it from those by which it is attacked: this is why it can rightly bear the name of Universal Medicine.


Here is the preparation

Take flowers purified out of the scoria a pound viz. of Antimony by which extracted Gold has been purified, which mostly are yellow or red in color containing volatile & undead Gold & failing that, take the flowers made of the golden regulus being mostly white, which will put; in a strong glass with a long neck, and put on it three or four pieces of tartarized wine spirit; mix them well together, stirring them & put over a hooked neck, in which put a few ounces of Mercury, as it is demonstrated in the fifth part of the Philosophical Furnaces stopping well the joints with bladder of Ox triple wetted, which being dry, place the glass in the bath, & give fire by degrees, so that the spirit of wine & Antimony can be digested, leaving him there for twenty-four hours ;& immediately that the fire is out, fire the vessel, & being cold, remove or separate the spirit dyed red from the flowers; put new spirit back, & put in the bath as before to digest every twenty-four hours, as long as it is red, repeating this three times, or as long as the spirit is no longer tinged. For when no more is needed, filter the dyed spirit through the brown paper, the flowers which remain after the extraction, are no longer necessary in this matter, which can be kept apart or discarded, but the dyed spirit must be put in a cucurbit with the still, & extract half of it out of the tincture, which distilled spirit can be used again for the same work, but the tincture left in the cucurbit, is the Medicine of which we have mentioned .Now that we have spoken of the spirit of tartarized wine, in order to satisfy those who might doubt it, I want here to give the description of it, which is done as follows.

Take 20 or 30 pounds of tartar, put them in a large retort battered with sand & distill; the spirit a gentle fire. This work can be done better, & rather by, the instrument of our second Furnace; & especially as it requires large & ample containers because, as it is very penetrating, you can first apply a Serpent of tin or copper to the neck of the retort instead of the container, which must be placed in a barrel full of cold water, so that the spirits are cooled & retained by this means. Half of it must then be extracted by a glass curcurbite with its alembic, because the other half with the black oil is of no use in this work, and for this reason it must be removed.After that mix this subtle distilled part with half of the dead head of the aforesaid spirit, calcined to whiteness, & draw or distill half of it again by bath, by a gourd & its alembic, the joints well closed, & the calcined tartar will retain with it the fetidness & the phlegm together, & will distill only the purest & subtle of the spirit, which must be mixed again with the other half of the calcined tartar in whiteness, & rectified by another a lembic. The dead head can be calcined again to remove its fetidity, in order to be able to use it again. It is here the spirit of tartarized wine, with which the aforesaid Tincture & essence must be drawn & extracted, & not only from this, but from all other metals, which cannot be done otherwise.& the calcined tartar will retain with it the fetidness & the phlegm together, & will distill only the purest & subtlest of the spirit, which must be mixed again with the other half of the calcined tartar in whiteness, & rectified by another still. The dead head can be calcined again to remove its fetidity, in order to be able to use it again. It is here the spirit of tartarized wine, with which the aforesaid Tincture & essence must be drawn & extracted, & not only from this, but from all other metals, which cannot be done otherwise. & the calcined tartar will retain with it the fetidness & the phlegm together, & will distill only the purest & subtlest of the spirit, which must be mixed again with the other half of the calcined tartar in whiteness,The dead head can be calcined again to remove its fetidity, in order to be able to use it again. It is here the spirit of tartarized wine, with which the aforesaid Tincture & essence must be drawn & extracted, & not only from this, but from all other metals, which cannot be done otherwise. The dead head can be calcined again to remove its fetidity, in order to be able to use it again. It is here the spirit of tartarized wine, with which the aforesaid Tincture & essence must be drawn & extracted, & not only from this, but from all other metals, which cannot be done otherwise. The dead head can be calcined again to remove its fetidity, in order to be able to use it again.It is here the spirit of tartarized wine, with which the aforesaid Tincture & essence must be drawn & extracted, & not only from this, but from all other metals, which cannot be done otherwise.

And if it were necessary, I would write a few other things about the very great strength & virtue it has for purifying imperfect metals, with which it has a great affinity, because it can separate the pure from the impure, of which we will speak more fully elsewhere; but when it is only for the purification of metals, it does not need so great a rectification, as is required in the extraction of Medicines, metals, & you can draw it in abundance out of the dry dregs. There is also another tartarized diviner spirit, which may be used in the above operation. It is done as follows. Dissolve in a pound of spirit of wine, six ounces of crystal of tartar, which solution can be used for the above extraction, & in the same way.


Warning

Do not conceive a bad opinion of this Medicine to be drawn from such a base thing, and without much subtlety. Do not say to yourself: If this is true, that such a famous & excellent Medicine can be made by such an easy way, for what do we need so many various precious and disgusting decoctions? why don't we use this in their place? certainly it would be better to use this one; but who will be so audacious as to dare to displease such a great multitude, who support this sort of concoction? certainly nobody; & there are few who can abandon their old custom, which prevails, though it must be corrected. I hope that, the time will come, that the Doctors will not work out of greed, but out of the charity that we owe to our neighbour,& that the sick will be fully relieved by their assistance. But for the virtue of such a great Medicine, I will make it open to those who are younger & less experienced than me, I leave everyone free to judge.


The Virtues of this Medicine.

she draws & evacuates it entirely & fundamentally out of all sides; it cures all fevers & other illnesses from superfluous humours; it gently evacuates the waters which are between leather & flesh, by stools & urine, in a short time, fortifies & purges the main parts, & guarantees them from all accidents against nature: It is an excellent preservative in times of plague & other contagious diseases; for those who already have it, it is an excellent remedy, promptly chase all the disease out of the heart by evacuating it; in a few words, it is the most excellent universal Medicine, gentle & greatly beneficial to old & young people; but it must be variously administered, because of the strength & virtue with which she is endowed;especially since it resembles a great fire that extinguishes a lesser one. Certainly one could not wish for a better Medicine than this, which is extracted from a base and despised thing, in a short time, at little cost, and with little trouble. I confess ingenuously that I have never seen its like, and I have no doubt that it is the best in the world. Why then do we seek any other than this? She excels in all things that are required in true Medicine; but even though it is very excellent, I am certain that many will have a bad opinion, because it is prepared from Antimony, which is seen as a base and despised thing, and by an easy way, but that does not matter, because I want to be deceived, admiring splendid things,


The use & dose of this Medicine.

Seeing that of all Medicines this has the most polish and power, it is necessary that we use it differently; for a small dose is always safer than a large one, because it can often be repeated; which must be taken care of in all illnesses of old or young. To infants of two, three, four, or six months, against worms, galls, fevers, & epilepsy, you need only give about half a drop in a proper vehicle, which must be repeated three or four times a day; it kills worms, evacuates bad moods from the stomach, recreates them, & protects them from galls, guarantees them from smallpox, & measles, if it is used under the months once: but to children of the age of two or three years, they must give a drop of it ;& to children of the age of two, three, four, or five years, a drop & a half; to young people from the age of fifteen to twenty-four, one can give two, three, or four drops, to robust bodies, from the age of twenty-five to fifty, four, five, six, or six drops: finally the dose must be increased or decreased according to the quality of the disease, & of the patient; And for stone, or gout, a few drops should be given every day in wine or beer, in the morning on an empty stomach, unless the patient is too weak, because then it should be given two or three times a day, and continue this as long as the patient is cured, whereupon it should be observed that he maintains a moderate diet. a drop and a half;to young people from the age of fifteen to twenty-four, one can give two, three, or four drops, to robust bodies, from the age of twenty-five to fifty, four, five, six, or six drops: finally the dose must be increased or decreased according to the quality of the disease, & of the patient; And for stone, or gout, a few drops should be given every day in wine or beer, in the morning on an empty stomach, unless the patient is too weak, because then it should be given two or three times a day, and continue this as long as the patient is cured, whereupon it should be observed that he maintains a moderate diet. a drop and a half;to young people from the age of fifteen to twenty-four, one can give two, three, or four drops, to robust bodies, from the age of twenty-five to fifty, four, five, six, or six drops: finally the dose must be increased or decreased according to the quality of the disease, & of the patient; And for stone, or gout, a few drops should be given every day in wine or beer, in the morning on an empty stomach, unless the patient is too weak, because then it should be given two or three times a day, and continue this as long as the patient is cured, whereupon it should be observed that he maintains a moderate diet. finally the dose must be increased or decreased according to the quality of the disease, & of the patient;And for stone, or gout, a few drops should be given every day in wine or beer, in the morning on an empty stomach, unless the patient is too weak, because then it should be given two or three times a day, and continue this as long as the patient is cured, whereupon it should be observed that he maintains a moderate diet. finally the dose must be increased or decreased according to the quality of the disease, & of the patient; And for stone, or gout, a few drops should be given every day in wine or beer, in the morning on an empty stomach, unless the patient is too weak, because then it should be given two or three times a day, and continue this as long as the patient is cured, whereupon it should be observed that he maintains a moderate diet.

For leprosy, pox, and scurvy, a dose must be given every morning, and the disease will be entirely destroyed. If the patient is extremely weak, he only needs to give two days each, as long as necessary. In epilepsy it must be given every day, as also in dropsy; at all fevers, two or three hours before the attack. For the little one, you have to give it immediately, and repeat it every day, but to present yourself, you have to take it once a week. For all other internal diseases it should be given daily until the disease declines; but afterwards it should be used little by little, until the disease is completely cured.

To externals, as to new wounds made by a blow, fall, wound from a sword, or bullet, broken bones, &c. every day seen once, with the necessary external application of plasters, to old fistulas 8th cancers, every day once inside, but, outside, the disease must be cleaned with mineral ointments; because by this way, however bad, however inveterate and desperate he may be, he will be truly cured, without pain and without torment.

Now, although this Medicine is the most precious of all, nevertheless there is a menstruation which is not corrosive, with which one can not only and with more facility than with the spirit of tartarized wine, extract a universal Medicine out of Antimony, which will be endowed with greater virtues than the above-mentioned, of which for the price of a richedalle a quantity can be made in three days, which will suffice to cure a thousand men. All plants, animals & minerals & metals, are also dissolved by this Medicine, & reduced to their first matter & by this way not only the fish are changed into very salutary Medicines, but also the bitter things are deprived of their bitterness, especially as the things are so corrected, that they do not cause vomiting, nor stools,which are very violent cathartics, being transmuted into excellent restoratives; even the fetid ones being corrected, acquire from it a pleasant smell, & (which is marvelous) it does not dissolve only the vegetables, animals, & minerals, & the things which come from it, but also the glass itself; this is why it is always necessary to choose the strongest glasses for the digestions & for the solutions & in their defect very weak must be changed every six hours. This Medicine is in no way altered by the things it reduces & turns into its primary medicinal matter, neither in its virtue nor in its color, always keeping the middle, itself; holding between the pure and the impure of which one falls to the bottom, and the other swims on the menstruation,Finally, the virtues of this menstruation cannot be praised enough for the preparation of Medicines, & it can well be compared to the Mercurial water of Basil Valentine, & to the Alcaest of Paracelsus & Helmont, which I judge to be the fire of the Maccabees, turned into a thick water under the earth; it is a perpetual fire which does not always burn visibly, it is a permanent water, not wetting the hands, the Soap of the Sages, the Azoth of the Philosophers, and the Royal Bath.

Although I knew this menstruation a few years ago, & that I often used it in metallics, & found many secrets by means of it, nevertheless I had never used it in Medicine, until I was asked by an amateur of the writings of Helmont, if I knew the preparation of the Alcaest liqueur of Paracelsus; & as he had spoken to me of some virtues of this liquor for the preparation of Medicines, I began to think within myself, & noticed that it was my secret bath which purifies metals, which is why I tested it immediately with plants & animals (because I knew its virtue in metals) & I found incredible & astonishing things, which were unknown to me: this is why I sincerely affirm & confess,that all & each of the Medicines that have been invented by others, & by myself, however rare & expensive they may be, are only a small thing in my opinion, since we lacked this universal key, without which our plants, minerals, & animals, in whatever way we want to work, could not be perfectly solved: this is why we only had a part of their virtues; but at present we need not much art, labor, or expense, to reduce the whole body without, corrosives to its first matter, which resembles a most beautiful liquor, throwing out superfluous earthiness, & becomes a very salutary Medicine made of the three principles in their purity ; which can only be done by this menstruation; for what else can Medicine extract from herbs, if not syrups, electuaries, preserves, and waters?with which preparations the herbs cannot be improved, but only qualified with the addition of sugar or honey, because there is no separation of the pure from the impure or of the good from the bad, for the whole is left together in the electuaries & in the preserves & in the syrups & in the distilled waters, there is only one part. It is true that extracts by the spirit of wine are not to be despised, if they are well prepared, but they are no better than their simple ones, which besides that are deprived of what the spirit of wine could not extract from it & although the remainder is calcined to extract the salt from it, & to mix it with the extract, however this is not a thing of great consequence because the fire destroys the virtue of the herbs, so that the fixed salts, even though they are ;crystallized, do not perfect anything in the Medicines except those which without any combustion have made it from the juice of the herbs, of which it is treated in the third Part of the Philosophical Furnaces. Besides, there is no one who dares to extract effective herbs for Medicine, because in the preparation they are neither corrected nor modified. however, this is not of great consequence because the fire destroys the virtue of the herbs, so that the fixed salts, even though they may be; crystallized, do not perfect anything in the Medicines except those which without any combustion have made it from the juice of the herbs, of which it is treated in the third Part of the Philosophical Furnaces.Besides, there is no one who dares to extract effective herbs for Medicine, because in the preparation they are neither corrected nor modified. however, this is not of great consequence because the fire destroys the virtue of the herbs, so that the fixed salts, even though they may be; crystallized, do not perfect anything in the Medicines except those which without any combustion have made it from the juice of the herbs, of which it is treated in the third Part of the Philosophical Furnaces. Besides, there is no one who dares to extract effective herbs for Medicine, because in the preparation they are neither corrected nor modified.

Now in this way the most powerful herbs, which without this preparation are only poisons, are dead & purified by this liquor of Alcaest; which means that they can be given to the most desperate diseases; for God did not create the herbs in vain, as some think, since he created them expressly to manifest his marvels. See Opium, Mandrake, Hemlock, Henbane, & other stupefying things, as being deadly when administered imprudently; but being corrected by this menstruation, they become sweet & excellent Medicines: how dangerous is the Esula, the. Scammonea, Hellebore, Catapuct, Gommiguta, & other violent purgatives, when appropriate. There is no one who is unaware of it;all these things are corrected by this way & changed into very beneficial medicines. Who is it, I pray you, who dares to eat Napelus, Mushrooms, & other poisonous vegetables? They are also so corrected by this liqueur of Alcaest, that not only are they no longer poisonous, but are turned into sweet and salutary Medicines for many diseases. Nux Vomica, Coque de Levant, & other things that disturb the brain, are by this means very beneficial. As also those poisonous animals such as spiders, toads, serpents, vipers, &c. are so corrected by it, that they have not only lost their poisonous quality but they resist & destroy the poison. who dares to eat Napelus, Mushrooms, & other poisonous plants?They are also so corrected by this liqueur of Alcaest, that not only are they no longer poisonous, but are turned into sweet and salutary Medicines for many diseases. Nux Vomica, Coque de Levant, & other things that disturb the brain, are by this means very beneficial. As also those poisonous animals such as spiders, toads, serpents, vipers, &c. are so corrected by it, that they have not only lost their poisonous quality but they resist & destroy the poison. who dares to eat Napelus, Mushrooms, & other poisonous plants? They are also so corrected by this liqueur of Alcaest, that not only are they no longer poisonous, but are turned into sweet and salutary Medicines for many diseases.Nux Vomica, Coque de Levant, & other things that disturb the brain, are by this means very beneficial. As also those poisonous animals such as spiders, toads, serpents, vipers, &c. are so corrected by it, that they have not only lost their poisonous quality but they resist & destroy the poison. but are turned into sweet & beneficial Medicines for many diseases. Nux Vomica, Coque de Levant, & other things that disturb the brain, are by this means very beneficial. As also those poisonous animals such as spiders, toads, serpents, vipers, &c. are so corrected by it, that they have not only lost their poisonous quality but they resist & destroy the poison. but are turned into sweet & beneficial Medicines for many diseases.Nux Vomica, Coque de Levant, & other things that disturb the brain, are by this means very beneficial. As also those poisonous animals such as spiders, toads, serpents, vipers, &c. are so corrected by it, that they have not only lost their poisonous quality but they resist & destroy the poison.

Consider the Spiders who have a Cross for a sign, who change their skin every month, and renew themselves; what the Serpents & the Alcion only do once a year. Many know the great virtue of raw earthworms, &c. in the month of May, to resolve the tartarous humours, and the pox. What then will they not do, if they are corrected by this menstruation? The Cantharids, & thousand feet, otherwise Woodlice, are also so corrected, that they can no longer be put to use solely for inducing urine; & if we could have this great & poisonous Basil, mentioned in the Fables, which kills men by its very sight (which is false according to the letter) it could be changed into Medicine by this liquor of Alcaest, as well as this mineral Basil, gunpowder,which kills in a moment an infinite number of men; like also Arsenic, Orpiment, Kobolt, & the like, they can be deprived of their malignancy, & reduced to very excellent Medicines. Finally, its excellent virtues, which are manifest in correcting the venom of simples, cannot be sufficiently described; this is why it deserves that we employ our care to seek it with all our power, so that we can prepare admirable Medicines, and that in the future the sick are not so tormented with bitter and importunate drinks. In truth, I cannot sufficiently admire its great virtues, which have been hidden for a long time. It is not a corrosive thing, & yet it dissolves all things, but some faster than others. It changes & enhances their natural virtue;this is why it can be the consolation of the Spagyrics, who have long sought rare Medicines, being that by which plants are separated & corrected; like also animals & minerals. This must oblige a conscientious Physician to have as a recommendation the preparation of this universal menstruation, by means of which he can prepare Medicines: its origin, and its preparation, are vile; but virtue is very efficacious, its invention & its use very difficult to find, that is why it can only be obtained by a gift of God, from which proceeds all kinds of good. So do not think that gluttony, drunkenness, wickedness, vanity, & lying, are the way by which one arrives there, since it is a gift from this merciful God?but in order that you know what must be determined concerning the preparation of the Medicines prepared from the simple poisonous ones, I want to briefly explain it. For example, considering all the vegetables, animals, and minerals, which are called poisons, and which make war on human Nature, when they are given within, and yet not without cause rejected by everyone, they are similar to an invincible enemy, who seeks with all his power to oppress and destroy his adversary; but being arrested by a Mediator who has no less strength, & reconciled with his opposite, he no longer has that malignity he had before his reconciliation, the other being unable to resist such a powerful enemy, being made his friend, & rescuing him against other similar & invincible enemies .It is the same with venoms, vegetables, animals, and minerals, destroying human Nature, which by the liquor Alcaest, which is like the reconciler, are so corrected, that they do not cause any damage; & greater enemies than they were, they lend each other mutual assistance after reconciliation. There is no such thing in Nature, which can so quickly correct poisons, reduce them to their first matter, and make of them a salutary essence. So I end this statement, which was not written without reason & which will touch those unhardened hearts. This is certainly the true Philosophical correction, with which what is evil is reduced to vile salutary substance. What can this correction be for, which is made by mixing other things, like cathartics & cordials?In truth none of the trick, even the cordials only debilitate the cathartics, for Nature is not able to destroy a poisonous purgative at once, nor to attract a comforting, or corroborating thing; for that a purgation being given forthwith, it puts its malignity into the body, which malignity Nature resists & endeavors to drive out the enemy, before she can draw the comforting friend out of it; wherefore that friend is driven out with his enemy. The same happens in the mixing of sugar, honey & other sweet things, with bitters, acids, &c. Unpleasant things are not corrected by sweet things, but acquire a different taste & flavor, without any other essential alteration.This correction is similar to those which are in Taverns, to correct with odoriferous fumes the air which was previously infected by the spitting, vomiting, and stench of drunkards. It is pleasant to them, although they attract the bad as well as the good aromatic smell, especially since they are deprived of judgment, but it would not be so to sober people who have the use of reason. In the same way are corrected today the simples; but a true & philosophical correction is made by itself, without addition of other choie, by the benefit of fire only both actual and potential, moist, ripening, separating, & correcting the malignity: which is done by the liquor Alcaest, as it is called by Paracelsus & by Helmont.

But whether my liquor is the same Alcaest of Paracelsus and Helmont matters little, provided it has the same virtues.

Fire & the virtue of fire can do a lot, not by burning & destroying, but by nutrition & maturity, maintaining & moistening Touching this moist fire, see Artéphius, Bernard, Basil, Paracelsus, &c. The maturity is never made by cold things, but by the hot ones, which produce seen germ. If by chance Nature has left something imperfect in the Vegetable, Mineral & Animal Kingdom, it may be corrected by means of Art with the liquor of Alcaest, which is the best correction, until by the benefit of Art, & by the assistance of Nature, some more excellent remedy has been invented. . And these are the incredible virtues of this Alcaest liqueur, whose use serves for the preparation of Medicines;& especially since it was said above that it also shows its virtues in metals, I cannot hide them from the studious. All of them will not be mentioned here, for he is endowed with so many that it is impossible for mortal man to be able to number them.


The virtues of the Alkaest which are manifested, in the Metallics.

Firstly, this Philosophical menstruation radically dissolves all minerals & metals without violence, & reduces them to gifted & salutary medicines, from Gold it becomes Drinkable Moon gold, Drinkable Moon; &, consequently of other metals, of potable metals; so that it may well be called the universal Mercury.

Secondly, it purges, washes, & transmutes minerals & metals into a nobler kind; wherefore it may well be called the Soap of Sapience, by which the Philosophers' saying is confirmed, Fire & Azoth whiten Laton.

Thirdly, by him all minerals & metals are ripened & fixed; so that after that the Gold or Moon which are not dead, and which are incorporated into them, can be drawn out by cupellation with profit; this is why it can rightly be compared to the bucket of Hermes.

Fourth, it makes the metals volatile, & conjoins them radically together; so much so that they support the fire, & one operates in the other in the fire, it destroys & vivifies, kills & resurrects; this is why it is compared to the Phoenix.

Fifthly, it separates the mixed metals without any loss, & very quickly but in a different way than the corrosive menses, so that each can separate apart for example about to separate Gold, Moon, Copper, Iron, Tin & Lead, & mix together, or two, three, or four of them mix, so that each appears separately without loss of any, you need not cup this mixture with Tin, by which Gold & Moon sees in are mined & everything else lost; but by this way they are all preserved & are removed one after another very powerfully & gently in the space of half an hour, by this very strong vinegar of the Philosophers.

Sixthly, the metals are suddenly mortified & reduced to see transparent glass, irreducible, like an Amause, but reserving the nature & property of each metal, which in the reduction of Gold gives the perfect Moon, by which the saying of the Philosophers is confirmed, the corruption of one thing is the generation of another from another: like also that of Paracelsus; of something does nothing & of nothing something. Moreover, this incombustible oil, or permanent water, shows the truth of the writings of the Philosophers, which generally assures that solution, putrefaction, distillation, sublimation, circulation, ascension, descension, cohobation, inceration, calcination, coagulation, fixation, & fermentation, &c. got into their work all at once, in one way & in one vessel.In this single operation all the colors appear, of which the Philosophers make mention, such as Raven's head, Virgin's milk, Dragon's blood, Peacock's tail, Lyons green & red, &c. By this liquor of Alcaest, one sees the truth of the Hermetic discourse; What is above is like what is below, &c. & many other things are executed, such as the secret Chalyps of Sendivogius, & the Talcum oil which is so much sought after.

This is how far my experience has gone, even I do not doubt that I will obtain by means of it this universal Salamander, which lives in the fire.

These things which I write are very true, though they are incredible to the ignorant, because of its marvelous virtues. I would like to publish it to the world for the public good, but out of consideration I have not thought fit to communicate it for certain causes, nevertheless lest the science perish, & in order that the true & almost extinct Medicine, for the cure of vulgarly incurable diseases, might be put to use, I discovered this secret menstruation to two of my friends, its separation, & its use.

But you don't think, because I wrote such lofty things, that I intend to make the secret common to all in general. I don't hear it like that; but I do my best to confirm him who seeks, & give him occasion to seek further, to find this secret, in which he will not only find the truth of my words, but by his practice he will find every day things greater than these.

And since I have never aspired to the vanity of riches and honors, I might well be persuaded to leave my most difficult labors to others, because in my old age his labors are painful and very tedious; besides this Philosophy has shown me another path, so much so that I have determined to abstain with all my power from these vanities, & to seek the permanent good & a quiet life will not fail those who seek them.

Seeing & remarking the infallible truth of the writings of the Ancients which are slandered by envious ignoramuses, I cannot help defending their words, & avenging their injuries in a few words, showing the possibility of metallic transmutation, but I do not affirm that by the art which I have practiced for many years, & by the possibility which I defend I have gained much good; especially since I could only do small tests to find the possibility of this without any profit, only in particular; for I have never made any attempt in any thing of the universal work reserving it till I have a more suitable time & place. However, I do not want to deny such a Universal Medicine, especially since I have seen the principles and the foundations of the art;this is why I intend to remove all the obstacles of domestic care, and to put it to the test; for who can doubt its possibility any longer, seeing that it is proved by very excellent men, even by Kings and Princes? This menstruation is sufficient to defend the writings of the Philosophers, without the metallic transmutation, & I truly believe that the time is approaching, when God, before judging the world, by fire, will show his great power to the Nations, by the revelation & incredible force of natural things, of which the transmutation of metals is not the least. I declare it in the third Part of the Mineral Operation, for the benefit of my & neighbour, & for the truth.


I will show how the aforesaid regulates flowers & scoriae of Antimony can be put to use for the improvement of imperfect metals, nevertheless so that the art is not profaned.

Antimony regulus being a metallic radical humor can do great things; for being reduced to water without any corrosive, it dissolves all metals, cleans, washes, dies, purifies & changes them into better species in such a way that one can derive a particular profit from it which is not to be despised: But how it can be reduced to water, & dissolve metals by it, make them volatile, & fix them again, it has been shown by Artephius, Basil, & Paracelsus, this is why it is not necessary to repeat here their writings, to which I refer the Reader.

Not only regulus, but also any kind of Antimony can be used in various ways for the separation of metals, & for the extraction of hidden Gold, which cannot be done without lead, as will be seen by the following example.

When you find a marcasite or other ferrous fossil, which resists & does not want to be put to the test of Lead, put three parts of Antimony in it & being well mixed, melt them in a covered crucible, & being melted, pour them into the cornet & when everything is cold separate the regulus, which will purge again by fire, as before & you will find Gold which was in the fossil if there was plenty of it, & if it had more Gold; because one does not draw it all at once with the first regulates, it is necessary to make another regulates By putting more iron & nitre there, which is also of a nature approaching Gold, & if these marcasites & fossils are not ferrous, you can put there, or mix in the first fusion, iron & nitre otherwise they will not make a regulus ;by putting more scale of iron there, you will make more regulates, & for the same use as that of which was spoken before in the fusion & repair of the extraction of Gold, the weights can also be made of slag. Because medium are easily separated calamine stone, marcasite, kobolt, tin, talc, & other gold containing fossils.

Moreover, everything containing Gold, such as that of Stiria, Carinthia, Garnet & Transylvania &c. can very easily be separated by this way with profit; & if the iron had no Gold, provided that Antimony has some, it can be separated by fusion with the iron if one makes a regulus of it, the rest of Antimony can be melted again with new iron, & new nitre of greater weight than this one, but less than this one & be reduced to proper regulus for the next use. Slag must be made into weights so that nothing is lost. If you have Antimony 100 pounds which contains two ducats & you want to separate the Gold from it. Take the weight of 100 pounds, divided into three or four parts, melt it according to the art,the weight of one or two pounds; then melt the slag with half its iron weight in a strong & wide crucible, & you will have more regulus, about 50 pounds or more, & 40 pounds of slag, of which you will make weights, or bullets for a cannon, &c. the rest about 8 or 9 pounds goes up in smoke, & like this you have reduced the Gold, which was 100 pounds in weight into one or 2 pounds which you can sublimate into flowers, leaving the Gold in the fire for their use, but the 50 or 60 pounds prepared by means of much iron, they have very little or no Gold, you can mix it with Tin, to make it more beautiful, harder, & melting, & to make various kinds of beautiful things, as dishes, bowls, &c. For Pewter mixed with the spelter resembles Moon in whiteness & hardness,

Now let us see what profit comes from the separation of this so despised Antimony. Argue that 100 pounds of antimony cost three richdalles, for most Polish is sold for that, & although that of Hungary & Transylvania is more expensive, nevertheless this one has more gold, to which add 60 pounds of old iron, which is sold for half richdalle, that the cost of the necessary coals & crucibles are worth half a richdalle more, the expense of all is only four richdalles, instead of which I take two of the cats, in Gold 6o pounds of regule, 9 0 pounds of slag, & one or 2 pounds of flowers. The 60 pounds of regule can be sold at the price of tin, which is why the pound is sold for a quarter of a rich-slab, & by this means the whole price is fifteen rich-slabs,then the 80 pounds of slag can be sold at 40 f. gold at least 24 f. or a half richedalle, & the whole counted & folded down, as they are, will remain sixteen richedalles.

And although Antimony returned only one ducat, and 1 pound of regulus was sold only the eighth part of a richdalle, nevertheless the remainder will be six richdalles, and in one day two men can easily separate 200 pounds and assuming that it contains no gold, As some Antimony has none, nevertheless one can earn four or five richdalles daily.

But when you have 100 pounds of Antimony, which contains 3, 4, or 5 ducats, and the iron required for the separation contains one or two ducats, then there is all the more gain. So whoever undertakes this business should look for the best Antimony & Iron & he could easily earn - every day 20, 30, & sometimes 60 richedalles. And if you can have so much regulus, that you cannot mix it all with Tin so as not to have any, then it can be sold in parcels, so that the pound is sold for the fourth part of a richedalle, by which way the daily profit of separation will not decrease, on the contrary it will increase, as will be seen by the following speech. The regulus of Antimony is the male species of Lead, its first being being impure Gold & not dying, but the first being of common Lead,is Moon impure & unripe, as experience tested, for Antimony purged & fixed always gives Gold but common Lead only gives Moon & especially as Antimony which is better than common Lead is called the Lead of the Philosophers or their secret lead, so called by many, but known to few people, not that the thing is unknown, or of an unknown origin, but because of its hidden virtues & properties. I say that all its virtues cannot be known by mortal man, although he was a hundred years old to search for this wonderful nature, for the center of all wonderful things can never be found.because purged & fixed Antimony always gives Gold but common Lead only gives Moon & especially since Antimony which is better than common Lead is called the Lead of the Philosophers or their secret lead, so called by many, but known to few people, not that the thing is unknown, or of an unknown origin, but because of its hidden virtues & properties. I say that all its virtues cannot be known by mortal man, although he was a hundred years old to search for this wonderful nature, for the center of all wonderful things can never be found.because purged & fixed Antimony always gives Gold but common Lead only gives Moon & especially since Antimony which is better than common Lead is called the Lead of the Philosophers or their secret lead, so called by many, but known to few people, not that the thing is unknown, or of an unknown origin, but because of its hidden virtues & properties. I say that all its virtues cannot be known by mortal man, although he was a hundred years old to search for this wonderful nature, for the center of all wonderful things can never be found. but because of its hidden virtues & properties. I say that all its virtues cannot be known by mortal man, although he was a hundred years old to search for this wonderful nature, for the center of all wonderful things can never be found.but because of its hidden virtues & properties. I say that all its virtues cannot be known by mortal man, although he was a hundred years old to search for this wonderful nature, for the center of all wonderful things can never be found.


Its use

Having mentioned the regulus of Antimony, which is Lead & better than the common, it must also purify the metals, wash them & separate Gold, & Moon, which is hidden in them; what the common can do, to which if the metals are added it draws the most impure part of it into the cup, & converts it into dross & drags it down with it into the porosity of the ashes, leaving the purest Gold & Moon in the cup, but of some, like Tin, Iron, & Lead, which do not obey lead, they cannot extract their Gold, & Moon & there is no one who has written the way of this separation; It is true that Lazarus Erker, & others also, have described the manner of separating Moon out of Tin, & Iron, which is not to be despised. If accidentally entered with the Moon,

But like Tin & Iron, most contain much Gold & Iron especially Tin, which is inseparable from the common; it is much better to look for another Tin, and another means of separation, as can be seen keenly among refiners, who test Tin & Iron by the common route on the test. While Tin and Iron liquefied in lead show their stubbornness, leaving by a natural and contrary property, rising above as slag or ashes, without any separation, except for gold and silver, if they are accidentally mixed together, which remain with the Lead, but not if they are hidden in their middle or center: But in order that this truth appear, I want to show it by an example. Put on the test under a tile 16 parts of lead & one of Tin in the manner of the tests, give fire of cast iron to separate the slag;then almost all the Tin, will flee or be burned at the bottom & separated as ashes above the sublimated lead, which is not deprived of its Gold & Moon incorporated together, which I will show after. When all is sublimated & calcined out of the lead, the test below the tile being removed, & the rest of the Lead spilled, you will find no more Moon after the cupellation, than what the 16 parts of lead contained before if they had not been cupelled with Tin, & even a few times less, a part being removed in the examination by Tin the same is done with Iron although Copper is added to it with glass lead to retain the tin, & Iron, & to separate their Gold & Moon, nothing would be advanced ;for although by this means Or & Lune could extract a little more silver, it would not come from Tin, nor from Iron, but from Copper; this is why it is necessary to draw it by another way of which we will speak in flight.

And at the same time I want to prove clearly that the separation of Tin & Iron by the common Lead to draw their Gold & Moon is of no value, because remaining in them, they are reduced to ashes or slag.

Take any Tin whatsoever & reduce it to ashes by Lead or by agitation in a polished earthen vessel (testing it beforehand by the common way to know how to distinguish it) which will calcine well, that Tin, corporeal in grain may be calcined, or that being melted, it may be separated from the ashes; then take a part of these ashes, and of the flux, according to six parts, or more: having mixed them, melt them in a strong crucible over a violent fire, as long as the flux has consumed all the lime of Tin and that of the two only one is made, namely a red or yellow glass, which can be tested with a wire of hooked archal put in it: if it is not yet clear, it is necessary to cover the crucible again, and to give greater fire, as long as the test is perfect. This work is finished in half an hour;thereby,

Then mix it into a powder, to which must be added the equal weight of iron filings; being mixed, put them in a strong crucible & neck, green, as much as the flow is very penetrating, & give great fire of fusion during half an hour; this done, pull it out, for Tin has separated, & reduced some part of Lead from the stream, withdrawing to the bottom, which may separate being cold, & be reduced to slag on, the head, & then be cupelled: then you will find a grain of Gold, drawn from Tin, without any Moon. And if before you have weighed less than 100 lbs. of Tin lime, & then this grain of gold, you can easily judge how much Gold is contained in 100 lbs. weight of Tin ash for at least three, four, five, or six ounces the whole if your work has been right.

So you see that the fault should not be put on the metals, but on the ignorant of the separation of Gold & Moon.

You must not, however, convince yourself of gaining much wealth by this way of Etain, for I have not written this for that purpose, but only to show the possibility of it; & if you think that the Gold comes from the iron by the flux, mix the iron filings with the flux, before putting the Tin lime there & you will find in doing so that Gold does not come from the flux or from the Iron, but from the Tin. Therefore being assured that it is Tin which contains Gold, you can consider how it is extracted very suitably with other Lead, & by another route, as will be said hereafter. And do not think that Tin contains more of the Gold than you have heard, for there is more, if wisely extracted. I do not deny that more Gold can be made from Tin, but more care must be taken than this,if you want more. One, it can be extracted not only by flux, but by several other maxims, for what is written of it, is only to show the possibility that Or which is contained in the imperfects, can be extracted by secret preparation.


The Flux required for this Operation

Take a part of white & pure sand, or stones with fire, not containing fusible Gold, to which you will put three parts of litharge of Lead, being mixed, melt them in a strong crucible so that it is made a transparent yellow glass, which will pour so that it occurs; then powder it, and use it in the aforesaid manner. If you ask how sand & stones mix, since they are not metallic in nature; I answer, that the lime of Tin, no more than the other fossils which resist, cannot be examined by Lead alone, for the following reasons, as much as in the calcination of Tin its metallic nature is hidden, & its impure & terrestrial parts are manifest; this is why it no longer has any affinity with Lead, & other metals,

As for the alteration of other metals, it is not the place to deal with them here, but only that of Lead & Tin, of which we have made the true description.

Lead reduced to ashes by itself, or to litharge, and deprived of its metallic form, cannot be put to use in this work without sand, or without stones, for the following reasons. Lead, & lead glass made by itself is highly fusible & volatile, & Tin lime melts with difficulty, & when these two limes would be mixed to be melted in a crucible, however they would not mingle, nor being melted did not kiss each other, because of the difference in their fusibility, especially as lead lime melts easily by itself by a small fire, pierces & penetrates the crucible, the lime of 'Tin remaining in the Crucible; this is why it is necessary to join sand or stones with Lead, to prevent its fusibility,that it may endure the same degree of heat with those which are hard to melt, For each thing embraces & mutually affects its like, as water does water; oil, oil, glass, glass; & metals, other metals; but water does not mix with oil, nor also glasses with metals, but its-metals with metals, and glass with glass, whatever it is made of metals or sand. Thus those who mix the limes of hard-to-malleable metals, or other hard things with lead, to examine them, err greatly, not considering that corporeal Lead has no affinity with them, they persist in their error & consequently find nothing worthwhile. as water makes water; oil, oil, glass, glass; & metals, other metals;but water does not mix with oil, nor also glasses with metals, but its-metals with metals, and glass with glass, whatever it is made of metals or sand. Thus those who mix the limes of hard-to-malleable metals, or other hard things with lead, to examine them, err greatly, not considering that corporeal Lead has no affinity with them, they persist in their error & consequently find nothing worthwhile. as water makes water; oil, oil, glass, glass; & metals, other metals; but water does not mix with oil, nor also glasses with metals, but its-metals with metals, and glass with glass, whatever it is made of metals or sand.Thus those who mix the limes of hard-to-malleable metals, or other hard things with lead, to examine them, err greatly, not considering that corporeal Lead has no affinity with them, they persist in their error & consequently find nothing worthwhile.

But when the lime of the metals is joined with the Lead by a medium, like the sand & the stones, & when a transparent glass is made of them, then the lead being precipitated & separated from the mixture, it cannot be that the Gold & Moon contained in them are drawn with it. This is a real & philosophical test, which should not be despised, especially since many things can be done by means of it.

But it should not be forgotten that in the mutual mixing & fusion of Lead glass & Lime Tin & other hard metals, one could easily err in the precipitation (which is made with the mixture of iron) of Gold with Lead in the regulates, so that nothing is gained, because of the excess or the lack, because if the mixture remains long in the fire without melting, it burns; so that it could not be well separated, if it remains too long in cast iron, the Gold is attracted by the scoria, because of the mixture of Iron, having great affinity with Gold; by this way we would gain nothing, this is why this work must be done differently with wisdom & industry. You must be careful not to burn the lead regulus with too much fire, when you reduce it to slag,for fear of drawing Gold out of Iron & reducing it to dross; & whatever this may be foreseen by industry, nevertheless we cannot all at once make everyone a Master of the Arts, for this work requires great diligence & daily exercise, besides the reading of Books; but this secret will be communicated elsewhere.

I therefore make this admonition to you, so that you do not impute your error to me, but to yourself: what I have written is true, and from this do not infer an impossibility of the attraction of gold out of lead by iron, nor of its reduction to slag; which does not surprise me, however incredible it seems to you. But so that you can be certain of it, make sure of it by the following test. Take 200 pounds of Lead of the lowest weight from the Refiners, put them on the test in your tile with eight or ten studs of pure Gold, two or three pounds of Tin & 6 or 7 of the lowest weight of Iron; melt them together for an hour, to reduce it to dross, as the Examiners are wont to do;then pull it & separate the Lead from the scoria, to cup what is separated: then weigh the grains of Gold let, & you will find that half has been consumed by the slag. That if it is done from a corporeal & fixed Gold, why will it not be from a Gold newly extracted from imperfect metals? this is why you must diligently seek the nature of the metals, and then things will not make you unbelievable.

We therefore see by this example, and by the others we have mentioned, that the separation which is made by the test and by the cups is not legitimate and true, and consequently that another more profitable separation of the metals must be sought, especially since by this the greater part of Gold and Moon is burned in scoria, to which experience bears witness. It is for this that the above examples have been set forth, to which also relates the manner of proof for knowing how much gold the slag has attracted. Which is done in the following way. Take the residue of the black slag, to which you will twice add their weight of salt of tartar, put it in a crucible which is only half filled, lest it go away by boiling, & cover it so that nothing falls into it,under the tile or between the hot coals, the space of one or two hours to digest, & there will rush a new regulus of Lead, which being separated from the slag, will be cupelled, & you will find new grains of gold attracted by the Iron of the slag & separated by the salt of tartar, which dominates the ferocity of the iron. Thus you have heard by two examples, how in the coction of the separation of Gold can be drawn from lead, by tin & Iron, wherefore it is necessary that Gold be separated from the above-mentioned metals by the regulus of antimony, & not by Lead if you wish to extract the true substance from them profitably. & you will find new grains of gold attracted by the Iron of the slag & separated by the salt of tartar, which dominates the ferocity of the iron.Thus you have heard by two examples, how in the coction of the separation of Gold can be drawn from lead, by tin & Iron, wherefore it is necessary that Gold be separated from the above-mentioned metals by the regulus of antimony, & not by Lead if you wish to extract the true substance from them profitably. & you will find new grains of gold attracted by the Iron of the slag & separated by the salt of tartar, which dominates the ferocity of the iron. Thus you have heard by two examples, how in the coction of the separation of Gold can be drawn from lead, by tin & Iron, wherefore it is necessary that Gold be separated from the above-mentioned metals by the regulus of antimony, & not by Lead if you wish to extract the true substance from them profitably.

Gold may also be separated from the glass of Lead, being first dissolved with the ashes of Tin, with charcoal powder, setting it in flux, & stirring it with a wire, as also with common sulphur, burning it over it, but the above manner with Iron is to be preferred to the other two which spoil Gold, &c. wherefore the remaining dross must be collected, from which by means of another attractive furnace, one may recover the Gold & Moon which have been lost therefrom.

All these demonstrations have been alleged only to show that the Gold which is in Tin & Iron can be separated by the regulus of Antimony, & not by the Lead Gold, as what this preparation must be done, you will hear it in the third Part, where we will treat of the lead specified by Paracelsus, in his Book called, the Heaven of the Philosophers & other chemical & artificial works, this is why we will say nothing about it, as being superfluous to discourse on the same thing in different places, yet practice the smaller things, so that you may be more intelligent in the larger ones. Do not be surprised at my liberality in publishing such great Secrets, I am right to do so, especially since I cannot carry such a great burden alone,and it is of no use to the rich and the miserly to sell their goods to those who do not keep their word, and who do not pay after they have had the secret, which has happened to me: This is why I have resolved to communicate some Secrets indifferently to everyone so that the poor will receive profit from them, knowing well that even though I write clearly, nevertheless not everyone will understand me at first. There are those whose heads are so hard that they cannot imitate a work, although they have seen it several times. Many have often visited me to see my new way of distilling, nevertheless after seeing it they did not know how to imitate it, until by frequent operations they encountered the true method. Others gave up the work when they did not succeed immediately, as they wished.If it happens to those who have an eye demonstration, it will happen much more easily to those who have only read it or I mean something; that is why I am certain that when I published all my Secrets in general & in particular, they could not be carried out, by all kinds of people.

And for the Spirit of Salt which is necessary for this work, you will find it in the first Part of my Furnaces, which is corrected & the means of separation in the fourth Part.


END