CHAP. VIII.
¶ Of quicksilver artificiall, called Hydragyrum. Of guilding siluer. Of Touch-stones for to trie the diuerse kinds of siluer.
SO inuentiue is the wit of man, that there hath beene deuised in the world a means to make an artificiall Quicksiluer in stead of the true and natural, and that out of the second kind of [unspec D] Minium which before I called Secundarium. I should erewhile haue spoken therof in the chapter of the right Quicksiluer, but deferred it I haue no further than to this present place. First therfore this is to be vnderstood, that made it is two maner of waies, somtimes of the Mi∣nium aforesaid punned with vinegre in morters, and with pestles all of brasse; otherwhiles it is drawn by fire: for they put secondarie Vermilion in an earthen pot wel luted all ouer with cley, vpon which is there set a pan of yron, & the same couered ouer the head with another pot, well cemented, vnder which earthen pot abouenamed, there ought to be a good fire made, & the same kept continually with blowing: and thus by circulation there wil appeare a dew or sweat in the vppermost vessel proceeding from the vapors resolued, which being wiped off, will in substance shew liquid as water and in color resemble siluer: The same liquor is easie to diuide into drops, and as apt again by the lubricitie thereof, to run into an humor. This quicksiluer being by the [unspec E] judgement of all men a rank poyson, I suppose, that al things reported of Minium as medicina∣ble, be dangerous remedies, vnlesse haply that by inunction of the head or belly, it staies all flux of bloud; with this caution and charge notwithstanding, that it neither perce and enter into the inward noble parts, nor touch the wound: for otherwise my conceit is, that it ought not to be vsed. I see that now adaies siluer only, and in maner nothing els, is guilded by the means of this artificiall Quicksiluer: wheras gold foile should be laid also after the same maner vpon vessels, or any workmanship of brasse: but (as I haue beforesaid) the deceit & fraud that is euery where in the world, which makes men so wittie as they be, hath deuised other means of guilding, and those of lesse dispence & charge than with any Quicksiluer, according as I haue before declared [unspec F]
I canot thus write as I do so much of gold and siluer, but me thinks I must of necessity speak of the stone which they cal in Latin * 1.1 Coticula, which in times past was not vsually found in any place but in the riuer Tmolus, as saith Theophrastus: but in these daies we find it euery where: fome call it Heraclius, others Lydius. Now these stones all the sort of them are but small, not