The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber

by Johann Rudolf Glauber

First, This green liquor, only by its external aspect, cheereth the Heart, Brain, and all the vital Spirits, seeing that of all colours there is none superiour to the Green in pleasantness, of which all men are witness, who have overcome the intense cold of a sharp Winter, behold the renewing greenness of the Trees half dead, and Herbs extinct, in the Spring time, with great delight and pleasure, and feel all the Blood in their Body to be renewed and revived.

Secondly, This Golden Liquor being drank, strengtheneth and confirmeth the whole humidum radicale, Stomach, Brain, and all the inward parts of the body, beyond all other Medicines which I have hitherto known. Also it expelleth Melancholly, and all anxieties of Mind, taketh away Palpitations of the Heart, openeth Obstructions of the internal Vessels; it healeth the hurts of the inward parts, as Liver, Lungs, &c. and cureth all inward Exulcerations; it cureth Gravel and Stone, whether in the Reins or Bladder; it keepeth the Body soluble; expelleth Wind, with the pains of the Cholick; preserveth the Blood from Corruption; cureth the Leprosie, Scabs, and Fevers of all sorts; in process of time it taketh away the Gout; to the insulting Apoplexy and Epilepsie it affordeth present Cure; it cleanseth the Blood infected by the Scurvy, Plague, and other contagious Diseases; it preserveth and freeth from all internal Ulcers; defendeth the Lungs, Liver, and other parts, and removeth Exulcerations already arisen, and takes them away radically. It so tingeth all the inward parts of a Man with its Balsamick Virtue, that not being easily obnoxious to Diseases, they enjoy a sound and long Life. Outwardly used, it healeth all fresh wounds, no less than old and open Ulcers, without any Ointments or Plasters; for in curing Ulcers of this sort, there is nothing in Animals, Vegetables, or Minerals, which answereth to this in Virtue; as also inwardly it cureth Ruptures.

This is the nature and property of Gold, that it most potently taketh away all filths, and also astringeth; which two things are necessarily required in the Cure of all Ulcers. This Salt, by its own help, commodiously doth the same, and also wonderfully promotes the Virtues of the Gold: The said Liquor very quickly taketh away the Ulcers of the Mouth and Throat, with all their scorbutick Infection, which are wont to give way but very slowly to other Medicines: And this it doth, although the Tongue, Uvula, and all the Palate should be full of Pustules. In short, for the taking away all internal and external Ulcers, I think no Medicine preferrable to this Liquor; but all other defects of the Body which it cureth, for brevity’s sake, I will pass over.

Moreover, this green and golden Liquor hath this nature and property, that beyond all other Medicaments, it conciliateth a wonderful fertility to all things, as its signature, the wit, the green colour, and my diverse infallible Experiments, do truly testifie. Hence the seeds of all Vegetables being macerated in the same Liquor, and set in meer naked Sand, they put forth golden Sprouts and Plants, having a smell much stronger and pleasanter, a fairer colour, and greater length than those which grow out of a fat Earth. Therefore this green Liquor holdeth the chief place in rendering Vegetables green and fruitful, and augmenting their growing faculty; so also among all the Medicines, I know it hath no equal in conciliating and preserving fertility in the humane body: For in all the Diseases of Mankind it bringeth great help and comfort, and effecteth more in assisting the fruitfulness both of Male and Female, than can be believed, and is so great an exciter of Venus, that it bringeth great solace not only to Old men, who being baulked by their younger Wives, are forced to lie still, but also to such Women who are barren in their flourishing age, and therefore destitute of Heirs.

I write not dreaming, but am taught by Experience, having seen some men so strengthened by this Medicine, that they have seemed to themselves never to have been weak, the which also some Women have experienced. Nevertheless such Medicaments are not to be administred too frequently to this Sex, seeing that without this sort of help they are wont to be sometimes exagitated by a more salacious Itch than is convenient: Its use is more safe to Old men, inasmuch as it cannot do them the least damage. Nor ought those things which I here deliver, to seem a wonder to any, for they have their certain and undoubted causes of Operation.

Let those two Subjects, of which the Green-Lyon is composed, to wit, salt & gold be inspected; they are the best of things, & necessarily required to the generation of all things; for, what herb can be brought forth without seed and salt? not indeed the least: for if the earth or sand wanteth salt, the seed of the Herb can neither have nutriment nor production: Yea, if the seed it self be also sowed in a fat Earth, and yet be destitute of the Rays of the Sun, it can in no wise grow out of the Earth, but will be suffocated and perish; the which thing is not hid to Rusticks, who after they have sowed their seed, do ardently expect the warm Sunshine. Therefore, for a desirable coming up of Vegetables out of the Earth, and their encrease, there is required a fat and salt Earth, as also the warm and fruitful heat of the Sun, with necessary Rain; which also is to be understood of the generation and multiplication of Animals.

NB. In Aurum Potabile salt supplies the room of fatness, Gold is the Sun, and the Spirit of Wine performeth the Office of the warm and fruitful Rain; so also no Minerals are procreated, but by the help of the sun, and labour of salt. They exercising their operations upon the Water, generate Minerals, as the Writings of the ancient Philosophers teach.

Some ignorant man may here object and ask, How it can be, that the Sun, by operating in the depth of the Earth, should generate Minerals and Metals of salt? Let him know, that the Sun, by his hot Rays, doth excite the central fire in the profundity of the Earth; which central fire is not unknown to those who are occupied in digging Metals out of the Earth, who sometimes feel so strong a heat, that laying aside their Clothes, they are constrained to labour very leisurely, yea, sometimes wholly to intermit it; as I have taught in The First Part of my Mineral Work. Therefore no man of a sound mind will dare to oppose these things, seeing that it is wholly agreeable to Truth, that generation and encrease in all Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, do arise from the sun and salt, to which water is wont to be an help.

Seeing therefore that my golden Liquor is prepared of such subjects, it can operate no other thing than fertility, and thereby signed by Nature with that beautiful greenness, by which it signifieth its endowment to render all things fruitful: God adorneth nothing with His marks and signs in vain; from which, as from His signatures, the powers and virtues may be more clearly known, than from Books. For the signature with which things are signed by GOD and Nature never erreth; but the Books and Writings compiled by Men very often erre. Wherefore did the ancient Philosophers and Poets worship Venus, the Goddess of Love and of Generation, and attribute to her a beautiful green, generated of the spume or foam of the sea? What is the foam or froth which the sea calleth out upon the shore, but salt, which being dried up by the heat of the sun, is reduced to salt? And the Poets, especially Virgil and Ovid, who were men of great literature, would not have handled such things with so prolix an ambage of words, but that they were willing by their Fabulous writings to reveal that great Philosophick Mystery to the world: Therefore I constantly assert, That this green Liquor is the chief Medicine of all things to grow or be encreased, as its pleasant Viridity and infallible Experience do testifie. The Ocean, the Mother of all fertility, sheweth also its greenness, especially in those places where it is rich in salt, and strongly irradiated by the Beams of the Sun. This is well known among Seamen, who from the change of the water into a greener colour, presently collect, that they are near to hotter Regions, in which the Sun-beams are more strongly projected; for in such places the Sea is so salt, that it shineth like fire: The Urine of those pissing out of a ship, falling into the Sea, sheweth like sparks of fire; there four parts of water are found to contain one part of salt. The Mediterranean Sea is not so full of Salt, as that which is between Spain and France; and again, in this it self is found not a little difference, seeing that the Spanish side exceedeth the French in saltness; and the Ocean it self, by how much the nearer it is to the North, by so much it is less salt; for which reason also the salt is weaker, and of less Virtue, being more remote from the beams of the Sun. Therefore the Danes, Sweeds, and other Nations, inhabiting the Northern parts, although they have plenty of Sea-water, nevertheless they do not make salt of it, but fetch it from France or Spain; which is a Testimony evident enough, that salt is elaborated in the water by the most ardent Beams of the Sun, and produced for the sake of an universal fertility.

This is indicated by the German name of the Sea, Meer, which is all one as if we should say Vermeer, that is, Encrease, Enlarge. An Appellation very well agreeing with the thing, because without the Sea nothing would encrease in the Earth, but on the contrary, all things live, and are encreased by it.