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

by Johann Rudolf Glauber

Now any may easily conjecture, that although this learned man had found out many things, yet that he knew not all, but what was known to him, that he divulged. But that as yet more might be done by that Spirit or Oil of Salt, than what he had set down, easily appeareth from that which he sheweth at the end, concerning the Oil or Liquor of Gold, prepared by the Spirit of Salt, which words are Truth it self, and much more may be done by the benefit of that solution. He hath written what Experience hath taught him, the rest he hath left to the study and searches of others.

Seeing therefore that I also (not to speak boastingly) have often handled Furnaces and Coals, and among others, have found this Liquor of Gold or Aurum Potabile, made with Oil of Salt, to be of great virtue, and knowing its great use, power, and virtue by experience, I will describe it in an open stile, lest so noble a Medicine should be buried. Such a Liquor of Gold as is here mentioned, is compounded of the purest Sol, and the most highly rectified and again concentrated Spirit of Salt: The Sol is to be first melted, and throughly purged with Antimony, then to be dissolved in Aqua Regia, and precipitated with ☿, to be edulcorated and brought into a subtile Calx, which must be heat red-hot (to free it from the ☿) and then dissolved in strong and well-prepared Oil of Salt; being dissolved, abstract part of the spirit of salt from it, and a very yellow Liquor of Gold will remain at the bottom, which yet is not, fit for use alone, seeing that the Oil of Salt containeth too much Acrimony; therefore a drop of it is to be mixed with a spoonful of Beer, Wine, or warm Broth, before it be administred to weaken the spirit of salt; but if any desire to have it sweeter, instead of Wine, Beer, or Broth, it may be mixed with melted Sugar, or syrup of Roses. The Dose for a man of ripe age, is two or three drops, which if he shall perceive not to operate sufficiently, he may encrease to three or four drops, so long, till he shall find an evident operation, which appearing, let him encrease the Dose no longer, but rather diminish it a drop; and when the Oil of Gold rightly performeth its operations, these signs will appear: In the first use, a certain loathing or nauseousness of the stomach, will be perceived, when the Oil of Gold findeth there a vitious pituity, and endeavouring to expel it, driveth it downwards, and ejecteth it by stool. 2. The Excrements are as black as a Coal, and during the use of the Medicine, the sick maketh a discharge by stools at least twice, sometimes three or four times, without any impediment or sence of necessity, as is wont to be in the working of Purges. The Urine will also be thick and turbid, because the Medicine dissolveth the Tartar and Phlegm in the Reins and Bladder, and by degrees expelleth it. NB. That by the black Excrements, it is manifest, that Gold may be radically dissolved in the stomach of a Man, which some think to be impossible. The humane stomach hath a greater power in the destruction of things than the strongest fire, as may be here seen by the Gold: Yea, all things which are eaten or drank, in the space of 24 hours, it throughly dissolved and transmuteth into a new form of Excrements.

If the stomach of a man can effect such things, why not Art also? Yea, hence it is expresly proved, that the colours of Gold, at length, when it is radically dissolved and destroyed, do appear, and may be known, seeing that in Colours Blackness hath as it were the first and chief place, and containeth all others hidden and concentrated under it.

NB. That these black Excrements should not be cast away, but the radically-dissolved Gold ought to be separated from them, with which perhaps some great thing may be effected.

I some time since administred this Oil of Gold, for eight or ten daies successively, to a certain Infant, for the freeing his body from Mercury, which had been imprudently given him for the Worms; I ordered the Excrements to be saved, for some Experiment, which nevertheless, because they stood long and bred Worms, I could not use, but commanded them to be put to the Roots of a young Vine, which had not yet born Grapes, being but of two years growth, which produced a small Grape with large stones, which had golden spots like Stars, admirable to behold. This Example is worthy of a profound consideration. It also seems to me, that the Urine of those who continually use the aforesaid golden Liquor should be auriferous, although it appear not in the colour. The thing is out of doubt, seeing that men, in the use of the said Medicine, attract only a certain hidden virtue from the Gold, and again send the rest forth of the body, that that Gold is better than other common Gold: The Benignity of the Divine Being hath disposed and ordained every thing in the World for the best.

Seeing that in the Stomach of Man or Beast the Food is destroyed and putrefied, Nature taking a little from it only for nourishment sake, casteth out the rest by siege, which yet is not of so abject a condition, as to want its virtues? for if these Excrements be mixed with any Earth, moistened with Rain-water, and exposed to the open Air, there will thence spring forth divers Herbs, without the addition of any seed; but if the seed of any Herb be adjoined, then is also brought forth fruit of the same substance and quality; so that these Excrements may degenerate, and be converted into whatsoever Fruits we will: From which Fountain the multiplication of Herbs and Metals may perhaps take its original. Therefore it is necessary, that Putrefaction should go before Multiplication; which our Saviour himself told his Disciples, saying, Except a grain of Wheat shall fall into the Earth, and die, it remaineth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. The Axiom of Philosophers is, Where Nature endeth, and leaveth the Work imperfect, there Art ought to begin. But the manner of proceeding farther they have involved in silence. Nature from the beginning hath sublimed a Mineral Ens, or first matter of Metals, as much as it could, and brought it to the royal seat, or highest perfection: Art hath destroyed the most perfect body of Gold by corrosives, and being destroyed, hath again dissolved it in the body of Man: But if any know the manner of proceeding farther with it, he may easily reduce that Essence of the dissolved Gold into a better, and multiply it: But I would not have this taken for an Oracle, seeing these are only my Cogitations.

The Use of this Medicine is to be continued till the body is freed from all ill Symptoms; nor are any other Remedies to be intermixed with it, that its operation may not be hindered: But before this Medicine be administred, a Dose or two of my Panacea ought to be given, (of which the Second part of my Pharmacop. treateth) for then its effects are to be admired.

This Oil of Gold, or Aurum Potabile, is of much greater force in all those Diseases, in which the simple spirit of salt is conducible, because the Oil of salt hath double the strength of the spirit, and also diffuseth its virtues much better, by reason of the Gold which is anatomized in it; the which, because it is of a hot and dry property, agreeth very well with the Oil of salt, whose nature is hot and moist: and hence it effectually resisteth all Corruption which may arise in the humane body.

Besides, the Virtues which the spirit of salt, and especially the Oil of Gold prepared with it, manifest both within and without the body; it is an egregious preservative against Drunkenness,Spirit of Salt, a Remedy against Drunkenness. which is the root of many Diseases, and the gate by which many evils enter: For strong Wine or stale Beer being drank, suffer nothing in the stomach, because it cannot restrain their subtile spirit, which presently flieth up into the Head, and disordereth and confoundeth all the senses. But if in the drinking, a little spirit of salt be mixed with the Wine, it openeth the Orifice of the stomach, and suffers not the spirits to fly upward, but restraineth and bindeth them, also mitigateth and represseth that unnatural Thirst, which otherwise the Wine causeth in excessive drinkings: Nor doth the Wine, which is mixed with spirit of salt, so easily hurt the Liver; for as the spirit of wine heats and inflames the Liver, so the spirit of salt corrects and cools it. Add that the spirit of salt permits not the liquor to lie lurking in the stomach, but presently casteth it out by Urine: and the sooner the superfluous Wine is cast out of the body, the less hurt it can do. But this is to be understood of the spirit of salt well rectified, and subtilly prepared.

In short, I might sooner want Paper to write, than matter to express what good the spirit of salt coagulated can do, being taken in drink; I have said enough for the present; in my Vegetable Work I will more fully discourse of this matter, in which I now acquiesce. Whatsoever I have here written of a Medicine against all Sea-faring Diseases, and of the concentration of Corn and Water, against Hunger and Thirst; as also of the most efficacious use of Spirit of Salt, against Drunkenness, and of the melioration of Wine, Beer, Water, and other Drinks, is built upon the pure foundation of Truth, which Experience it self will sufficiently testifie; with which I put an End to this Discourse.