Frontispiece of the Collection of the Most Curious and Rare Secrets ,
of Joseph du Chesne, Sieur de la Violette and Baron de Morence (1544-1609),
physician to King Henry IV of France, in which appears the Treatise on Mineral Medicine,
which follows on from the Treatise on Metallic Medicine.

TREATY ON MINERAL MEDICINE

Joseph du Chesne (Quercenatus)
1641
(posthumous edition)

LAT notice on the “Armenian bowl”

We find, in this "Treatise on Mineral Medicine" by Joseph du Chesne, a term that is not very common in alchemical treatises - but on the other hand frequent in treatises on spagyric medicine -, the meaning of which seemed useful to me to clarify. This is the “Armenian bowl” or “Armenian bowl”. A succinct annotation about it appears in the paragraph "Precipitate of antimony" of this treatise, which itself refers to the appendix - more detailed - that I have inserted at the end of this treatise, consisting of an extract, in chapter LXXI, of the "Comments of MP André Mathiolle on the six books of the medicinal matter of Pedacius Dioscorides". LAT

ANTIMONY
CHAPTER I.

Elixir of Antimony.
Antimony is hermaphrodite, male & female of one & another nature, sulphur, fixed & volatile mercury, the first born of metallic nature, medium substance between mercury & metal, the only solvent & the only fire of nature which mixes with all things, & with which all things can be mixed, the dragon & the Lion devouring, the solvent & the coagulant. From this matter must be expressed the juice and the blood, because it is the Red Lion of which Paracelsus hears to speak, which is nothing other than this first matter from which one draws a pure substance, by separating all its filth, as much by the operations which follow the traces of nature, as by the various ablutions, as we will show in the great Triad of Paracelsus.
To practice this work, therefore, you must first separate the regulus from it, put as little saltpeter as you can in it, melt this regulus, pulverize it and wash it with water, so many times that it does not have any blackness, so that when you repile it, it remains ponderous, very white and very clean like silver, because in this state it can be amalgamated with the perfect bodies.
Take one part of this regulus, gold passed through antimony in the common way two parts, sublimated Mercury, made as it is shown in the Chapter of Mercury, & which is so well prepared, & so well purified of its salts & of all its arsenical spirits, that you can give it by mouth without any inconvenience four parts. also the sublimated Mercury, of these three well purified & cleaned materials make the same body, a triad or chemical concordance, & of these three by sublimation, you will make a single & same substance, because as Arnauld de Villeneuve says, Quidam in fine operationis post incerationem aut dealbationem spirituum addunt corpus perfectum. non enim Spiritus & corpora se amplexantur adinuicem,

Essence of Antimony.
It must be calcined all by itself in a pot over the fire, always moving it with an iron spatula, and taking care that it does not melt, until it becomes white-grey, unless it lumps together, which must be prevented as much as possible, it must be powdered again and calcined again, because by this means the arsenical and poisonous part of the antimony vanishes. Take this lime of antimony, powder it subtly, & with a very strong vinegar extract the salt, & when your menses will be the color of hyacinth, pour it out by inclination & put it back in another, as long as it is no longer tinged. All these tinctures must be put in a still over an ash fire, to be exhaled until dryness: & on the matter or the salt which you will have left after the extraction of the vinegar,
But you must go further, and take this matter softened by ablutions, to pour over it an excellent spirit of wine, which in the digestion and circulation you will make of it, will redden like a ruby, put back on the matter so much spirit of wine that it no longer attracts tincture, after the perfect circulation, distill and separate the spirit of wine, and you will be left with a red powder and marvelous in its effects, from which you will give seven or eight grains, for purify the blood mass, renew & restore the person, cure leprosy, pox, scrofula, & in short bodily & spiritual illnesses, epilepsy, dropsy, &c.
To go even further with the same remedy, you must have a quantity of this red powder, & circulate it again in a pelican with a very good spirit of wine, then push the whole thing to a high fire, & a very red oil will come out, endowed with greater virtues than the powder, which you will see separated from its impurities & the oil being made very spiritual, very formal & very active.

Another essence of Antimony.
Subtly pulverize a pound of Antimony & incorporate it with eight ounces of saltpeter, then calcine it in a crucible on hot ashes, without letting it get on fire, then grind it again with four ounces of saltpeter, calcine it again on the ashes, proceeding in this way up to three times. Then being subtly pulverized, grind it in a glazed bowl with very hot water which you will withdraw by filter, to continue in this way until it no longer comes out salty, & you will find your white antimony, which dried in the Sun, will be put in a long-necked matrass on slow ashes, with good brandy, for four hours, which you will then empty by inclination, to put in new one, & continue this digestion & infusion of brandy until five times, on the menses will have attracted all the essence of antimony .Evaporate all your brandies by distillation with BM & you will have left at the bottom a powder, salt or essence of antimony, of which you will give only a grain with canned roses, & you will do wonders. Others take all that powder, reverberate it & fix it for 24 hours for medicine, but the essence is much better, for what it purges without vomiting. The secret is in the calcination on ashes, without the fire getting started. reverberate & fix it for 24 hours for medicine, but essence is much better, for what it purges without vomiting. The secret is in the calcination on ashes, without the fire getting started. reverberate & fix it for 24 hours for medicine, but essence is much better, for what it purges without vomiting.The secret is in the calcination on ashes, without the fire getting started.

Antimony precipitates.
Take some salt oil, made with Armenian bowl (note from LAT: "Armenian bowl" is synonymous with Armenian bowl, Red Earth, Red Sulfur of the Sages, Arenamen, according to the Mytho-Hermetic Dictionary of Dom Pernety; in medicine, specific against the plague; colored clayey earth that was once used, in the form of pellets, as a tonic and astringent; see appendix at the end of the volume), & digest with this liquor from the anti raw monk or regule for a few days, then distill over high heat, & you will draw a red oil which will come out in fairly good quantity, if you put this oil in fountain water, it will rush into a white powder like the powder of the Mercury of life, from which if you give six, seven or eight grains, she will purge without vomiting .

Sudorific of Antimony.
Take one pound of antimony, two liters of saltpeter, mix everything very well, & throw it little by little into a well reddened crucible, take the material again from the bottom of the crucible, weigh & add as much saltpeter, & put back as before in the reddened crucible, doing this three times: wash your material very well with several waters, & there will remain a white powder which you will soften, & which you will mix with as much saltpeter, & which you will throw back into the reddened crucible as before, finally rewash your material very well & dulcify it, from which you will take a scruple, which you will infuse overnight in water of blessed thistle, & you will have an excellent sudorific, this powder is used to make several infusions, which can still powerfully move the sweats.

Crocus or Sulfur of Antimony.

Take equal parts of antimony and saltpeter, mix very well, and then throw this powder little by little into a crucible which is moderately red, and make the liver of antimony, which must be pulverized and boiled in water until it makes a red lye, which you will run through the gray paper or filter it otherwise, and then you will throw in a little vinegar, either simple or distilled, and suddenly the tincture or the red sulfur will separate. & will rush to the bottom. This sulfur thus separated and dried, can serve as a great remedy to purify the mass of the blood, and even as an excellent purgative. Mr. Wolfius Ordinary Physician of the Very Illustrious Prince Maurice Landgrave of Hessen made it a beautiful experience in a young girl,who had galls on her legs and elsewhere so bad and troublesome that he doubted that it was some kind of leprosy: the galls by friction with sulfur and mercury went away, but they came back afterwards, he made her take this crocus of Antimony for the space of a month, mixed with a diuretic extract only in a dose of six or seven grains per drachma of the diuretic which she took in the morning and had two or three bowel movements, without any disturbance or vomiting being mingled in this way. And having used this remedy for a month, she was completely cured. This experience makes him praise all the remedies that proceed from Antimony, more than those from Mercury.he made her take this crocus of Antimony for the space of a month, mixed with a diuretic extract only in a dose of six or seven grains for a drachma of the diuretic which she took in the morning & had two or three stools, without any disturbance or vomiting being mixed in this way. And having used this remedy for a month, she was completely cured. This experience makes him praise all the remedies that proceed from Antimony, more than those from Mercury. he made her take this crocus of Antimony for the space of a month, mixed with a diuretic extract only in a dose of six or seven grains for a drachma of the diuretic which she took in the morning & had two or three stools, without any disturbance or vomiting being mixed in this way.And having used this remedy for a month, she was completely cured. This experience makes him praise all the remedies that proceed from Antimony, more than those from Mercury.

Mixed tincture of Antimony.
Take a glass of Antimony, pulverize it, & mix two ounces of it with one ounce of candy sugar, then add to it an excellent spirit of wine, set it on fire, & swirl with a spoon until it is entirely extinguished, separate by inclination the clearer, & put back in it the same spirit of wine, rekindle it & let it extinguish, do this several times, always separating the clear: if you give a spoonful of the liquor which comes out of it, which is an oil sugar imprint ed with the tincture of Antimony, you will make two stools without vomiting, & two spoonfuls will make four.
To do it in another way, we first extract the tincture of Antimony with only the spirit of wine, then we pour it, & we add to this spirit of wine, as much sugar as is needed, & we set fire to make the oil, which will be better imprinted this way.

Antimony flowers.
Make the flowers of Antimony just as you make those of tin & lead, from these flowers an excellent purgative is made in the quantity of six, seven or eight grains, infused in wine or in substance, without any vomiting. But on these flowers, it is necessary to distil the spirit of acid vitriol conjoined with its phlegm several times, and to dry it after all.

Antimony spelter.
Hermès to make a regulus puts four ounces of marshal's nails in a crucible, being very red, he throws in eight ounces of Antimony & a little saltpetre, & melts the whole without tartar, then he lets it cool, & he finds the core of the regulus, he melts it again, throwing in about an ounce of saltpetre for the second time, & lets it cool again, then he remelts it alone twice, & he draws out four or five ounces of regulates, which has the impression of the Mars which is excellent. See the properties of this regulus in the Iron Chapter. But to make it a more excellent remedy, take four ounces of regulus prepared as above & melt it, to this regulus add an ounce of Sun & the whole will calcine, pulverize it & put it in a matrass, pouring over it an excellent spirit of salt,as long as it floats three or four fingers, & in a few hours, it will be tinted red, by the dissolution it will make of the gold. This solution exhaled, you will be left with a powder which, without vomiting and given of itself in substance or infusion, produces marvelous effects for the evacuation and purgation of bodies. It is given with preserves, but without being separated from its menstruation, and given in small quantities of four or five drops, it is a remedy for several lamentable diseases, mixing them with some liquor.

Antimony crystals.
Take three ounces of antimony spelter, & 4 of good three-water saltpeter, calcine them together according to the art, give a high fire at the end, as long as your material becomes white, pulverize them afterwards, & let them reverberate for eight or ten days in a hermetically sealed matrass. Spray your material on the marble, put it in a matrass, pouring over the spirit of rectified guaiac, which floats the material four fingers. Put in digestion on a fire of ashes, let the matter boil for three or four days, & then withdraw your spirit of guaiac imprinted with a part of the salt of Antimony: evaporate in the bath two thirds of your spirit, put the rest in the wet, & it will be converted into crystals, which you will separate with a pierced wooden spoon; still evaporate a third of your mind,put in the damp, & it will convert it into lapils, which you will collect as before. Having quantity of these lapils, you will dry them gently on the ashes until the perfect dryness: it is an excellent purgative, of the weight of eight or ten grains, without causing any nausea nor vomiting.

Antimony salt.

Powder the Antimony as finely as possible, dissolve it in its own water, which is none other than regale. This solution is put in a led bowl on hot ashes, where you will evaporate it until your powder is very dry, boil it in rainwater for two hours, then having rested you will empty it by inclination, by putting new water in it, until it comes out soft and clear. Your powder being dry, put it in a clear glass vessel, to calcine it on a low fire, until it acquires a cherry color, maintaining it for a month in such a fire: then reduce it on the marble to an impalpable powder, putting it in a matrass with vinegar which floats two fingers, boiling it in BM for the space of a day, always adding new vinegar as it diminishes .And then put this vinegar in a glass retort, continuing the boiling & separation of the vinegar for three days, which you will always put in the retort, & make them exhale or distill it, until there remains at the bottom a white powder: on which you will put new vinegar, & when it has boiled for the space of two hours, you will let it stand for a day, & as long as the vinegar becomes quite clear, which you will empty into a retort, putting back on the faeces again vinegar, proceeding to it from above until it is well dissolved. Distill all your vinegars in the bath, & you will find your white salt at the bottom, which you will boil in rainwater for two hours,

Antimony oil.
then you will give it a high fire, & do not be afraid to give it too much, for what your salt is fixed, & that the fire cannot harm it, leave it afterwards to cool, & to make an oil of it, pulverize it subtly & pass it through the sieve of cordial powders; this powder being made, put it in a matrass with vinegar on top, dissolve it in BM for 4 days, then let your matter rest for a day, & empty after most of the vinegar, put it back in again until the fourth time, stirring your matter four times a day, & what will remain at the bottom is useless to medicine, but take your three dissolutions, pass the vinegar through the retort & you will find at the bottom a powder which you will put in a glass still with its container ;which is in cold water well fought with its yoke, lest the spirit come out of it, make a small fire for four hours, increase it a little for another four hours, and maintain it like this until you see the spirit rise as red as blood. Continue this same fire for 5 hours, until it begins to change color. So make the fire as big as you can, & leave it like that for an hour, & when you see that your still is beginning to be full of snow, make a good fire until the still becomes clear as it was before: when everything is cooled, the oil of Antimony will be perfect,

Other Antimony oil.
& immediately you put another one on it, & you will proceed in this way until it is no longer colored. This done, distil in the bath all your colatures that you will have kept, put the water which will distil on your faeces up to seven times, & at the last the oil will remain very red, thick, & very sweet, which cures all cancers, & noli me tangere: & which circulated with a good spirit of wine, is an admirable remedy against all the internal diseases of the human body.

Mercury of Antimony.

We extract the regulus of Antimony, then we convert it into Mercury, with the resuscitative salts by ordinary digestions and sublimations: & for this purpose, we reduce the regulus or the cinnabar of antimony to very fine powder, then we remix it with as much vitriol from Hungary, & a little salt to make it sublimate according to the art, & you will have a beautiful flying eagle in the form of sublimated Mercury, which you can revivify in flowing Mercury, as one res the common sublimate, moreover the cinnabar of antimony can still be easily converted into flowing Mercury, without the need to sublimate it, by mixing it with as much half-calcined tartar, or with quicklime, or half-burnt bread crust, & a little armoniacal salt, & as for the rest, follow the rules of the art, distilling with the retort on the fire,& in the manner that you will have composed the antimonial cinnabar, thus you will draw a double Mercury, which will flow alive into the receptacle full of cold water, & you will have a very excellent eagle, which one can truly call philosophical Mercury.


VITRIOL.
CHAPTER I.

Magisterium of Vitriol.
Take Vitriol, distil the phlegm, the spirit & the oil through the retort over a high flame, & then separate by distillation the oil from the phlegm & the spirit, which you will do according to the art. When you add about three or four pounds of vitriol, half a pound of powdered coral or more, & five or six ounces of seed pearls, it will be for the best. From the colcotar reduced to powder which will contain the lime of the coral & the pearls you will draw all the salt from it with common waters distilled according to the art. This salt is again dissolved & coagulated by various times with the phlegm of vitriol, as long as it becomes white & transparent like snow.On this salt put the spirit & the oil in a hermetically closed matrass, in digestion & circulation of the hot BM for several days, then distill by the same bath, or by the ashes, all the liquor which will leave with its own salt all its spirits, & it will come out as insipid, which you will nevertheless keep to give a spoonful of it to feverish people, & to use it against the redness of the face, & against many other ailments . From the magisterium which will remain with you at the bottom dry & in the form of salt, you will reduce it to powder, which you will reserve as a very precious remedy, for all opilations, cachexias, dropsies, hypochondriac melancholies, & infinite other evils, given alone with proper liquors. & against many other evils.From the magisterium which will remain with you at the bottom dry & in the form of salt, you will reduce it to powder, which you will reserve as a very precious remedy, for all opilations, cachexias, dropsies, hypochondriac melancholies, & infinite other evils, given alone with proper liquors. & against many other evils. From the magisterium which will remain with you at the bottom dry & in the form of salt, you will reduce it to powder, which you will reserve as a very precious remedy, for all opilations, cachexias, dropsies, hypochondriac melancholies, & infinite other evils, given alone with proper liquors.

But to make it a greater Magisterium, distill crystals of tartar in our way, & the fetid oil being separated from it, & the liquor purified by redistillation with the colcotar & the coral, you will draw from its calcined faeces all the salt according to the art, which you will join to the liquor, & this liquor digested & circulated in the bath, & then distilled, will leave a magisterium in the form of salt, which already works wonders for obstructions & cachexias: but being mixed when it is in liquor, with that of vitriol impregnated with its own salt & the whole digested & circulated together, it makes itself the magisterium of the magisteriums.

Separation & conjunction of the elements of vitriol, for a universal medicine.
Take as much Hungarian vitriol as you like, dissolve it in common water in a warm place, filter through paper, & coagulate what you have filtered, repeat this three times, then calcine the coagulated vitriol between the yellow & red color, then dissolve it in vinegar, filter it & coagulate it as you did with the water three times, or until it leaves you no more faeces. Then coagulate it in the bath, & calcine it once more until it is golden in color, & in a retort of glass distill the spirit over a sand fire, pulverize the dead head, pour over its own spirit, & distilling it over an open fire, water & oil will come to you, repeat this by the cohobation of its spirit three times, always pulverize the matter, & put the spirit back on top of it.Extract the salt from the faeces with vinegar, & filter it, coagulate the filtered salt, & dissolve it again, filter & coagulate three times, & the elements being thus separated, you will join them in this way. Take three parts of the spirit, two of oil & one of salt, put the whole in a glass mortar to be digested in the Athanor for 30 days, and a stone will be made of which a single grain will suffice for spasms, paralysis, heart palpitations, womb affections as well as epilepsy & all the desperate diseases of the human body.

Extraction of vitriol from all metals.
One can draw vitriol from all metallic bodies calcined by sulfur with distilled rain or snow water: for these bodies by means of calcination become impregnated with the vitriolic spirit of sulphur, which is the only means for the extraction of vitriol.
Others have the phlegm, the spirit and the oil distilled from a good vitriol, then from these three spouses together, they take three ounces of it which they put with three pounds of distilled water and in there they put the calcined metal, from which they want to extract the vitriol, until this liquor has attracted it, after they can no longer attract it, they separate two thirds of it by distillation, and when cold the vitriol is found coagulated. ulé, which they finally separate by various times, but for the better more water should be consumed until it thickens at the end, which happens variously according to the goodness of the vitriol. From a pound of copper you get more than a pound and a half of vitriol, especially since the water you put in it coagulates it and increases its weight.
Others reduce all metals to vitriol, after having calcined them each in their own way, and then imbibe them with the spirit or oil of vitriol, which has this property, by imbibitions and digestions alone, of reducing calcined bodies to their nature, from which one can perform beautiful and great operations for health.

Extraction of sulfur from vitriol.
Take some vitriol, the greenest and finest in Hungary, which you will crush and which you will expose to the Summer Sun in bowls, stirring it two or three times a day: then when it is whitened by the rays of the Sun, you will dissolve it in water, and you will separate an ocher or rather a sulfur from it, which will remain at the bottom, and the rest you will coagulate it into vitriol, and you will put it back in the Sun to whiten it, which you will wash with various waters, & your sulfur will separate, continuing this same procedure, as long as almost all your vitriol converts into sulfur, & it goes to the bottom. This sulfur can be used to make harmless.

Vitriol Crocus Martis.
You only have to rub the vitriol in all the parts, and over it pour clear water from a fountain, then stir and mix this matter with a stick in a terrine, where you will leave it to reside for three or four hours, as long as the water is clear, which must be thrown away, repeating until the water is soft, and at the bottom you will be left with a purple powder, which is the Crocus Martis, which some want to call ocher, but it is nevertheless the true Crocus. Martis of the Philosophers.

Excellent oil of vitriol.
Take vitriol & distill it in the common way to extract the phlegm, the spirit & the oil, & from the colcotar extract all the white salt by means of hot water. On this salt (purified with its phlegm if you want) put back the phlegm, the spirit & the oil, then put the whole in digestion in the BM for a few days, drive out the pure from the impure, & after a rather long digestion, distill the humidity, & all the virtues both of the oil and of the spirit, will join & mingle with the salt, of which you will give a few grains in broth, or wine, or in some other liquor, proper for all obstructions & many other diseases.

Oil of vitriol & salt all together.
When good glass vessels cannot be found to endure the fire, oil of vitriol & salt can be made better & more easily, by drying the vitriol to yellowness, & the salt to decrepitation, & mixing two parts of finely powdered vitriol with one of salt, & two of coarsely crushed bowl, push with great force of fire, & the salt will help to pass the vitriol, & you will have more clean liquor to draw the sulfur of marcasites, more than common aqua regia. To separate one and the other spirit, put everything in a boiling bath, & the oil of salt will come out first, with a sour taste, & such that if you had distilled it all alone, & the oil of vitriol moderately acid, will remain in its full strength,suitable for the uses for which it is commonly used: this oil of vitriol can be dephlegmated & purified to dissolve the Moon. I would like to use this water for the precipitation of Mercury, because it is not so corrosive nor so harmful as the others.

Sweet oil of vitriol.

in quantity of more than three or four ounces for pound, which is proper to precipitate Mercury, putting on each pound of oil half a pound of Mercury, & pour after it is well dissolved in water, four ounces of the salt which you will draw from the colcotar with common spring water. Then distil this water through the still with heavy boiling, and by this means the sour sulfur of the oil of vitriol will rise, and if you renew the waters several times, and you have them distilled, you will separate all the sourness.

Other sweet oil of vitriol.
We still make the oil of vitriol sweet as honey, and which can dissolve the Sun perfectly, in this way.
Take oil of vitriol well made, as much as you like, put in it the fourth part of its weight of filings from Mars, mix everything according to the art, & put it on the fire of ashes for an hour, & the oil will change smoothly: afterwards filter this oil through the cloth, & thus you will have an excellent oil, for the dissolution of gold.
Others dissolve in the oil of vitriol, as much salt of tartar as it can dissolve, & redistill the oil again over it, reiterating this solution & redistillation so many times, that it can dissolve the gold in sheets or calcined.
For the calculation redistill the oil of vitriol on the crystal.
To stop the blood on the Crocus Martis.
For the roboration on the coral & on the pearls.
There are some who, on two or three pounds of vitriol, add a pound or half a pound of coral, and cause the oil of vitriol to grow all together, for which the coral is marvelously useful.

SULFUR.
CHAPTER III.

Sovereign sulfur balm for all lung foods.
Take flowers of sulfur, or common sulfur, one ounce, oil of tartar three ounces, put the whole together in a large matrass over the ash fire, or bring it near to the fire, in order to boil the oil until the sulfur is at all dissolved, which will be done without adding hot water, if the oil of tartar should be consumed too much. The sulfur being well dissolved in the oil, you will draw it from the fire & leave it to cool, & pour over it, out of the fire, white vinegar little by little, because of the boil which will rise with a very stinking smoke, then let everything simmer, & it will form a curd at the bottom, remove the vinegar by inclination, & on the curd pour as much hot water as all the spirit of the vinegar comes out, & that you will have a soft curd left, from which you will put in an egg,

Sulfur flowers.
Take sulphur, alum, saltpeter, one pound each, put everything in a very capable glass still with its cover, fire by degrees the furnace of Athanor, there will come out a water with which you can precipitate the Mercury, when the flowers begin to rise, put a blind still, and increasing the fire, your flowers will rise, from a pound you will always get about 12 ounces, or more.

Sulfur Mortification.
which is admirable for health, according to Paracelsus, who prepared it thus. Others extract the tincture with brandy, as one extracts that of antimony.

Tincture of red sulphur.
Take sulfur, which you will dissolve in oil of turpentine, on this solution you will add biscuit bread, always stirring until the material becomes dry & as if in powder, put this powder in a matrass, on which you will pour a good spirit of wine, which will attract the red dye, & will leave the oleaginous part at the bottom with the bread.

Red sulfur oil, against the plague.
Put two ounces of spirit of turpentine in a vessel on the hot arena, dissolve in it at various times, nine drachmas of flowers of sulfur, and you will be left with a black mass like pitch. On this mass pour a well-made spirit of wine, which you will hold on the sand fire, & in four hours, you will draw the red tincture from it, put again on top of new spirit of wine, as long as it no longer attracts redness, distill all your tinted spirits on the sand in a still, & it will distil a very red oil. Its use is mainly for the plague, operating through sweats.

Other red sulfur oil.

You have to make a vessel of glass or Beauvais earth in the manner of a lute, then give a very small fire from the beginning, to melt the sulfur that you will have put there in small pieces, which you will mix with as much pumice stone, which is a marvelous vehicle for pushing all things, and which neither gives nor can imprint its quality on the material, & note that afterwards you have to give a large fire on top (because it is thus & that sulphur, & that resins, & all oily & sulphurous gum s are distilled) & a pound will come out of it nearly 4 ounces, & sometimes a little less. This oil dissolves the Moon as well as that which is drawn through the campane.

OF ARSENIC.
CHAPTER IV.

Preparation of Arsenic.
Arsenic is equal to Mercury, both in the property it has of whitening, and in the occult virtues of its nature, this is why Paracelsus reiterates in his Book of the Dawn Mercury and all its preparations, and takes in its place arsenic well prepared and well purged of all its impurities. To purify it therefore & prepare it in the manner of the Philosophers, take equal parts of crystalline arsenic & good vulgar Sandaracha, put them in powder in a retort with a quantity of common water, & give it distillation fire, until the water has passed, & it has carried away in the receptacle all the blackness & all the impurities of the arsenic, & that all that it will be able to sublimate is raised, then opening your retort you will find that all the sublimate will be only mad white flour,
We still prepare arsenic in several kinds, because some separate the floury substance by sublimating it with Mars or with soap, and others by other means, as we have specified in our Book of the Spagyric Preparation of Medicines.

Sublimation of arsenic.
Take very good arsenic, & fix it by calcining it with saltpetre according to the art, & of this calcined arsenic take six ounces, with as much good sublimation, & four ounces of common salt prepared or decrepitated, put it in a clean sublimator or matrass on an ash fire, & when the humidity has all come out, plug it with cotton, continuing & increasing the sublimation fire by degrees, as long as the sublimation is completely mounted at the neck of the vessel, which will happen in twelve hours if you conduct the fire well, finally expose the vial or the matrass to the air, so that it breaks by itself, and that you can better separate your matter from it. Take this sublimate, and resublimate it again three or four times, with new material, this is to give it a coagulative impression,& a white tincture of arsenic, which is a big secret. This sublimate being thus prepared either mixed with half of powdered tartar adding vinegar, & always proceeding as one does in the revivification of cinnabar, thus you will prepare in this sublimate a Mercury, which being very clean & purified, will be preferable to the vulgar in all kinds of chemical operations.

CINNABER.
CHAPTER V.

Mineral cinnabar.
Of all the cinnabars the mineral is always the best, and of this there is a very excellent one, near Marburg in Germany, where there is a mine of very red Cinnabar and the finest in the world, from which a flowing Mercury is drawn, which gilds the silver spoon, and this Mercury is drawn easily, and in reasonable quantity, because if you add to a pound of this pulverized Cinnabar a little bit of quicksilver, you will draw at least half a pound of flowing Mercury. , which is of a nobler nature than the vulgar, for what it subtilizes the metals so strongly, that being amalgamated with gold, the goldsmiths cannot use it to gild, because it is too attenuated.

Extraction of Mercury from Common Cinnabar.
Take common cinnabar as much as you like, and having reduced it well to powder you will put it with half its weight of pulverized tartar, then you will put the whole thing in a large retort with a very strong vinegar, which floats the materials by three or four fingers, grinding them very hard beforehand, and then having removed the vinegar by a slow distillation, you will remove it from the container to half fill it with common water, then you will adjust it and accommodate it with the retort. , which you will have previously placed on the oven buried in the sand, & will make a good fire below, & on the end above, & you will see the Mercury distilling flowing in large quantities inside the water of your container, after you will separate it from the water, & having dried it well from its humidity,
You will notice that crushed quicklime can serve instead of tartar to revivify in Mercury flowing the cinnabar, as also the sublimed Mercury being mixed with them in the same quantity as the tartar. These Mercuries thus prepared are of quite a different nature from the vulgar, which by its great coldness and crudeness is in no way suitable with hot and cooked things, like the perfect metals the Sun and the Moon.

Cinnabar of Antimony.
Take Raw Antimony and Sublimed Mercury, Equal Parts, Mix Well Together, & Put Them in Aonitable Retort & Lute with its receptacle, & on Sand Fire, You will Draw from it by degrees a Gum which will be the Butter of Antimony, & when the GUM WILL HAVE STOPPPED DISTILING Well as Below, & Your Material Will Sublimate All As Much at the Sides as at the Neck of the Retort, & by this means you will make a very beautiful cina bert of antimony.

PRECIOUS STONES.
CHAPTER VI.

Essence of corals & pearls.
Corals can be calcined with saltpeter, and then you can extract their essence with brandy, which does not touch saltpeter, and if it touches it, I don't think it can harm it, given the excellent remedy that is obtained from saltpeter, reduced to glass with sulphur. Now, to calcine coral, it must first be pulverized, then mixed with three times as much good saltpetre, and put on fire until it is perfectly calcined. The same could be done with pearls, but it will be better to dissolve them with the sour solvent of dephlegmated sulphur, for although it remains mixed with the essence, it can only be of great use to it.

Dissolution of the pearls by the vinegar of Saturn.
Distill the vinegar impregnated with the sweet salt of Saturn, & dissolve the pearls in it, then distill the vinegar over the pearls, & when it has passed, change the container, put on a low heat, & first you will see a white & very ethereal spirit come out, then increase the heat a little, & you will draw a reddish liquor, take all these liquors & put them in a small retort, which is placed on some pierced plate to receive the hot steam of a bath, by which the white spirits & ethereal can be separated from the others, by changing the receptacle, & at the bottom there will remain a red, oleaginous & sulphurous liquor. If therefore, on these pearls thus dissolved, filtered & purified, you pour a few drops of the white spirit of Saturn, you will see the body of your dissolved pearls,
When the fiery oil has been drawn from the litharge, or minium, with all its spirit, it must be rectified according to the art, & first distill the pure & the true fiery mercurial spirit, then a reddish & oleaginous brandy, & finally a salt in the form of a very biting vinegar, which is the phlegm with which the pearls are dissolved. And with the mercurial spirit added to it, they coagulate with their acid phlegm. This same spirit which has the coagulative virtue, although it is ardent and flagrant with such coldness, that if you dip a finger of your hand into it, and you put it near a lighted candle, this spirit will light up without your finger feeling it, because on the contrary, you will feel your finger colder than hot, although it is all inflamed.

Master of pearls & corals.
The Magistery of pearls and corals is made with vinegar and the spirit of tartar, for after you have dissolved one and the other perfectly in distilled vinegar, and added to it a few drops of oil of tartar, that is to say, salt of tartar dissolved in fountain water, putting on two pounds of water 4 ounces of salt, thus making it strong to taste in order to be more penetrating (otherwise the essences would go to the bottom and would turn yellow). you will separate your pearls & your corals from their menstruation, then you will sweeten them by various ablutions, & you will use them for several beautiful uses of medicine.
The magisterium of pearls being mixed with some eyebright water in the form of a liniment, erases the spots which cover the pupil of the eyes, provided that they are not too inveterate, and that such spots are not converted into a membrane.

Essence of medicinal stones.
Essences are drawn from egg shells, shells, calculi, sponges, stones called Lynceus & Judaica, in the same way as we have just taught, & such essences are of marvelous strength, to dissolve & push the stones of Calculists out of the bladder. But the essences of the Judaic stone and of the Lynceus are incomparably cleaner than the others, for if you give a grain only, or two, with white wine, or with some other suitable water, you will give a diuretic which will make you urinate almost until blood is drawn.
I believe that instead of vinegar, one could use the acid spirit of vitriol or sulfur, and that if one drew as above, the tincture of the salt of the Judaic stone, one could make an equally powerful diuretic to dissolve the stone, provided that one made injections with the syringe into the bladder with the egg white water, or else after having dissolved the said essence in the vinegar, to dissolve it again in the egg whites. hardened.

Essence of Hematite.
The essence of Hematite can easily be extracted by means of pumice stone, as we have said in several places, or else by using rose vinegar, and from this vinegar imprinted with this stone, one can make a syrup with gooseberry juice or that of plantin, or else a form of potion specific and very suitable for those who piss blood. If you can't find hematite, take coral or Crocus Martis, & prepare it the same way as hematite.

Essence of Hyacinth.
Take the purest Hyacinths and the most stripped of their rawness that you can find, put them very subtly in powder, calcine them afterwards with flowers of sulfur three times, then draw in the essence or the tincture with the spirit of salt, by the digestion of the bath, or the belly of the horse, this tincture is admirable against nervous diseases, if one gives a reasonable dose of it for the space of fifteen days, and of this the experience has been made in a contract (sic -LAT), who was perfectly cured of it , being purged by this remedy two or three times, because it has this property of purging & corroborating everything together. You can also draw essence from other gems.

CRYSTAL.
CHAPTER VII.

Crystal oil for calculation.

Calcine & redden the pulverized crystal several times in a crucible, after extinguish it in vinegar, continue this calcination & this extinction several times, because the more so much the better, & even it would be good to reverberate it a little long in an oven, & to water after the red lime with vinegar several times, on this calcined crystal in this way, you will put vinegar again as long as it floats 4 fingers to extract a salt, after separating in the vinegar , & the salt will remain for you at the bottom of the color of leeks, you will put this salt on top of the marble to be dissolved in a humid place, & of this liquor you will give a few drops with a suitable vehicle for the calculation.
Venetian glass extinguished several times in the spirit of vitriol & well reduced to powder, has the same property as crystal, or even greater, for the contrition of calculation, especially as it participates in the alkali salt.

TALC.
CHAPTER. VIII.

Preparation of Talc with the manner of reducing it to oil.
Take powdered talc, tartar and saltpetre, as many as each other, and calcine them in a great fusion fire, until your matter is white, then remove the salts, and the talc will remain calcined for you and reduced to a perfect whiteness. Finally draw the salt with very good vinegar on a fire of digestion, then put these vinegars imbued with the salt of your talc, in a pot of still, to make it distil until dry, & put the remaining matter in resolution to the humid, & of this kind you will make an oil of Talc, if it is true what is said, that the vinegar attracts the salt of the talc, as well as of the other minerals. For me, I would like to distill it up to half or two-thirds, & let the ice cubes form in the cold, like all other things,

Other Talc oil.
which covers it all around up to the top, then arrange the container & give it a small fire, increasing it little by little until a white liquor comes out of it, then a red one, & finally a tanned one, so you will see various colors & different & very viscous substances, coming out of the same matter, of which the first, which is entirely medicinal, is called earth by the Alchemists, because of its humidity, & the second fire, because of its subtlety. Afterwards pound your remaining faeces to boil them in a pot, or in a pot with well water, which you will pour & keep aside in a tightly closed flask, as well as the other oils. This last water whitens the whole body, heals leg swellings & large scabies, softens & whitens the hands, & cleans them of all stains,But the liquor does not only remove stains, but also warts, scars & other marks, it whitens the teeth and removes wrinkles from the face forever, & if you drink two drops of it in wine or broth, you will drive away the bad breath which proceeds from putrefaction, moreover it strengthens the mother, awakens the appetite & corrects all the vices of the stomach.

Another excellent Talc oil.
& this sublimated must be still resublished, with as many talcs as it weighs, & as much salt common prepared by six times, always releasing the faeces with sublimated materials, reburating them together each time, & putting on it the thickness of a finger flaw again, & in this way you will make a beautiful, crystalline and well-stripped of all its venenosities. . And for the faeces of the salt which will have remained to you, you will dissolve them in water to separate the salt from it, and you will be left with a perfectly beautiful Talc, & calcined philosophically, which can be dissolved in this state, & be reduced to oil by the help of the spirit of wine, which will be marvelous for embellishment.with as much talc as it weighs, & as much common salt prepared six times, always remixing the faeces with the sublimated materials, regrinding them together each time, & putting on it the thickness of a finger's breadth of new prepared salt, & in this way you will make a beautiful, crystalline sublimate & well stripped of all its poisonousness, which is suitable both for the health and for the embellishment of the face. And for the faeces of the salt which will have remained to you, you will dissolve them in water to separate the salt from it, and you will be left with a perfectly beautiful Talc, & calcined philosophically, which can be dissolved in this state, & be reduced to oil by the help of the spirit of wine, which will be marvelous for embellishment.with as much talc as it weighs, & as much common salt prepared six times, always remixing the faeces with the sublimated materials, regrinding them together each time, & putting on it the thickness of a finger's breadth of new prepared salt, & in this way you will make a beautiful, crystalline sublimate & well stripped of all its poisonousness, which is suitable both for the health and for the embellishment of the face. And for the faeces of the salt which will have remained to you, you will dissolve them in water to separate the salt from it, and you will be left with a perfectly beautiful Talc, & calcined philosophically, which can be dissolved in this state, & be reduced to oil by the help of the spirit of wine, which will be marvelous for embellishment.always remixing the faeces with the sublimated materials, regrinding them together each time, & putting on it the thickness of a finger's breadth of new prepared salt, & in this way you will make a beautiful, crystalline sublimate & well stripped of all its poisonousness, which is suitable both for health and for the embellishment of the face. And for the faeces of the salt which will have remained to you, you will dissolve them in water to separate the salt from it, and you will be left with a perfectly beautiful Talc, & calcined philosophically, which can be dissolved in this state, & be reduced to oil by the help of the spirit of wine, which will be marvelous for embellishment.always remixing the faeces with the sublimated materials, regrinding them together each time, & putting on it the thickness of a finger's breadth of new prepared salt, & in this way you will make a beautiful, crystalline sublimate & well stripped of all its poisonousness, which is suitable both for health and for the embellishment of the face. And for the faeces of the salt which will have remained to you, you will dissolve them in water to separate the salt from it, and you will be left with a perfectly beautiful Talc, & calcined philosophically, which can be dissolved in this state, & be reduced to oil by the help of the spirit of wine, which will be marvelous for embellishment.& in this way you will make a beautiful, crystalline sublimate & well stripped of all its venom, which is suitable both for the health and for the embellishment of the face. And for the faeces of the salt which will have remained to you, you will dissolve them in water to separate the salt from it, and you will be left with a perfectly beautiful Talc, & calcined philosophically, which can be dissolved in this state, & be reduced to oil by the help of the spirit of wine, which will be marvelous for embellishment. & in this way you will make a beautiful, crystalline sublimate & well stripped of all its venom, which is suitable both for the health and for the embellishment of the face.And for the faeces of the salt which will have remained to you, you will dissolve them in water to separate the salt from it, and you will be left with a perfectly beautiful Talc, & calcined philosophically, which can be dissolved in this state, & be reduced to oil by the help of the spirit of wine, which will be marvelous for embellishment.
Take therefore from this sublimate one pound, of very beautiful & very crystalline salt of tartar made by various dissolutions, additions & distillations of brandy two pounds, grind & mix everything together well, then put in the cellar on the glass slide to be dissolved, & then dephlegm it by bath, & finally distill it by the ashes, & all your mercury of life will pass into a precious & transparent water, your salt of tartar remaining in the retort much better than in the retort. previously for the same works. This oil alone already gives luster to the yellow pearls, and is one of the beautiful decorations of nature, being mixed with suitable waters.
But to make it the true sovereign oil of Talc, take the calcined talc that you have left, and drink it on the marble or in a glass vase with its double weight of your oil, put the whole thing in digestion in the bath for eight days, then pass through the retort, & part of the talc mixed with oil of Mercury will pass into the container, & at the bottom will remain the talc in the form of Lumen perlarum, which dissolves by itself in all true kinds of liquor, which is the & admirable talc oil, which marvelously whitens, nourishes the complexion, & preserves the beauty, moreover it erases all the spots & all the vices of the skin, removes the redness of the face, even when they would be natural, & whitens the scarlet just now.

END