A choice collection of rare secrets and experiments in philosophy as also rare and unheard-of medicines, menstruums and alkahests : with the true secret of volatilizing the fixt salt of tartar / collected and experimented by the honourable and truly learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Kt., Chancellour to Her Majesty the Queen-Mother ; hitherto kept secret since his decease, but now published for the good and benefit of the publick by George Hartman.

About this Item

Title
A choice collection of rare secrets and experiments in philosophy as also rare and unheard-of medicines, menstruums and alkahests : with the true secret of volatilizing the fixt salt of tartar / collected and experimented by the honourable and truly learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Kt., Chancellour to Her Majesty the Queen-Mother ; hitherto kept secret since his decease, but now published for the good and benefit of the publick by George Hartman.
Author
Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665.
Publication
London :: Printed for the author, and are to be sold by William Cooper ..., and Henry Faithorns and John Kersey ...,
1682.
Rights/Permissions

To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.

Subject terms
Medicine, Magic, mystic, and spagiric.
Alchemy.
Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A35968.0001.001
Cite this Item
"A choice collection of rare secrets and experiments in philosophy as also rare and unheard-of medicines, menstruums and alkahests : with the true secret of volatilizing the fixt salt of tartar / collected and experimented by the honourable and truly learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Kt., Chancellour to Her Majesty the Queen-Mother ; hitherto kept secret since his decease, but now published for the good and benefit of the publick by George Hartman." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A35968.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 13, 2024.

Pages

An Observation about Volatilised ☽.

MOnsieur de L'oberie, and Mons. de l Noë wrought the first Process upon ☽ (which is after those upon ☉) that is in the handgrif of Bas. Valent. which maketh the fourteenth Book of his Test. But instead of a due Calx of ☽, they took one made with A. F. (the ordinary made of Vitriol and Nitre) and Precipitated it with Salted {fire} (Salt dissolved in Common {fire}) and for

Page 23

the rest, did as the Process teacheth; which was Reported to me thus. Put upon this Calx of ☽ (they had ℥iv.) (after it is well dulcified by often ablutions with fair {water}, till no Saltness or Spirits appear to remain) so much fresh A. F. as to swim four fingers breadth over the Calx of ☽: Distill off the A. F. then cohobate again; do thus four times: At the last distillation give strong {fire}, you will have a gray substance like Mar∣caite. Beat it to Powder, and put distilled Vinegar upon it, to swim four fingers over it; digest two days, then boyl it three or four hours, after which, distill away all the distilled Vin. and there should have remained blew Crystals, but they were white without tincture: So having failed in their expecta∣tion, they would reduce their ☽ back in a body, therefore dulcified it well with distil∣led Vinegar and fair {water}, and put it into a Cruc. to melt with a little Borax, and a little Nitre, and a thick smoak flew away, and in the end there remained but ℥ij. of ☽.

Consider, if this course, and, if need be, digesting longer (at last) with distilled Vi∣negar and Oyl of Tartar, {sal armoniac}, and Salt of Urine, &c. Then distilling with Tartar and Calx-vive, might not make ☿ of ☽.

Do you have questions about this content? Need to report a problem? Please contact us.