Chymical secrets and rare experiments in physick & philosophy with figures collected and experimented / by the Honourable and learned Sir Kenelm Digby ...

Opus Magnum ex Virginea Terra.

TAke reddish rich Virgin Earth in ♈, im∣pregnate it with ☉, ☽, serene and dew, till the end of May: Then imbibe sprink∣lingly with dew gathered in May, and dry in ☉, expose all Night to the ☽ and Air, se∣curing it from Rain. Still when it is dry, imbibe and turn the Earth often. Continue this till {subli}mation. The hot ☉ (especially in the Dog-days) will make a pure Salt shoot up, which mingle back into the Earth, by turning it all over. Then distill by gra∣duated {fire} as A. F. forcing all the Spirits over at last; you must give fourty hours {fire}, extream at last. Put all the Liquor and Salt that cometh over, to digest and circu∣late a Month in fimo, in a great Ballon close shut. Then seperate the several substances out of this Chaos; first, cometh an extream subtil, ardent, AEthereal Spirit, then white ones with veins like S. V. then Flegm. Thus far in B. in a Cucurbite, then in a Retort: Then white fumes, then red ones, and a reddish brown Salt remaineth in the bottom, and a Volatile Salt will be {subli}med about the neck of the Retort, as also to the head and sides of the Cucurbite. Then purifie every substance by it self; the fixed Salt by Solu∣tions

in the Flegm, Filtrations, and Con∣gelations, till it be perfect pure, clear, and cast no more Feces: The Volatile Salt by often Sublimations: The first Spirit by thrice distilling, and the fixed white and red Spirit likewise, both together. Now joyn all the three parts, beginning with the fixed Salt, whereof take three parts, and one of the fixed Spirit; digest eight days, distill in Ashes, and the Liquor will come off like Flegm. Imbibe with more fixed Spirit, and repeat this till all of it be coagu∣lated with the Salt. Then put one part of this to three of the {sal armoniac}, taking it all, and hu∣mect them with the Volatile Spirit. Digest eight days or longer, then distill in a Cucur∣bite; a stinking flegm will rise, and a pure Salt {subli}m up, and if any Spirit distill over, keep it, putting it to the rest of the Spirit. Then add more of the fixed Salt to it which hath not {subli}med, making it one third to the {sal armoniac}, which humect with Spirit as before, cir∣culate and {subli}m, and the {sal armoniac} will be increased. Do thus till all the fixed Salt be {subli}med. Cir∣culate the remaining Volatile Spirit with the {sal armoniac}, till all the Spirit be converted into {sal armoniac}, and nothing but a stinking flegm come a∣way. Then {subli}m this Salt by it self, till it leave no Feces, and be most white, trans∣parent, and pure, which will be in four or five times.

Take seven parts of this {sal armoniac}, and one of pure ☉ in leaf, Seal it Hermetically, and digest in B. The Matter will become a green {water}, like an Emerauld, with an Ori∣ental esclat: (and in a Retort will pass all over, leaving a few grains of brownish-gray stiptick Earth, like Tobacco-pipe Earth) And after a while black like Ink, and continue so two and fourty days; when the blackness beginneth to wane, put it in dry {fire} in an Athanor. It will pass the co∣lours, and become a red Elixir, and is now best for Health; but it will not have good ingression into Metals, till it have been mul∣tiplyed four or five times with new {fire}, taking every time after the first, only three to one; and it will be done every time after the first in a shorter space. After every fixation of the multiplication, and the first also, give strong {fire} for three days, and a black Earth will separate from the red Powder, lying like a Cake under it. Before you Project upon inferiour Metals, ferment anew with three parts of ☉ to one of the Elixir, giving three hours of extream fusion, and all will be red Powder.

You may proceed in the same manner for ☽.

Note also, That when the Work of ☉ is at the white, it will Project upon Inferiour Metals, to make them like ☽, but in truth white ☉, enduring all the tryals of ☉.

If you digest in B. V. ten parts of Pearl in Powder, with one of the perfect {sal armoniac}, it will become an Oriental Liquor, whereof a few drops is admirable for Health.

If you take four parts of such {sal armoniac}, and grind it well with pure red Coral in Powder one part, and {subli}m, putting what riseth up∣on as much of fresh Coral, repeating this four or five times, the {sal armoniac} will be red like a Ruby, and an admirable Medicine. All the Corals will dissolve in a Cellar.

If you grind one part of it with ten parts of green Venice Talc, and put distilled dew upon it, six fingers over, and digest in fimo, all the Talc will dissolve, and a splendid Oyl of rare effects swim upon it.

Hartman.) Sir Kenelm D. said, that a Person of Quality beyond the Sea (whom he named) wrought this Process, and it hap∣pened at that time that his Wife was dange∣rously Sick, and like to die; she was given over as a dead Woman by the ablest Physici∣ans: Upon that he opened the Vessel, and gave her one grain of the Elixir; whereupon she Recovered, and lived many Years after it in perfect Health.

This Process, and Saunier's Work were to∣gether in a small bundle of Papers tied up to∣gether by it self; upon the out-side of it were written the following words, Perfumes, Cu∣riosities, My great Arcane of this Note.