Buy some Steel filings of the Needle-makers, and take thereof as much as you please, dissolve them in rectified Spirit of Salt, which Solution will be green, and be of a sweetish tast; abstract the insipid Phlegm, insipid I say, for although it be a very strong Spirit of Salt that is poured upon the Iron, yet nevertheless no Spirit comes off, but onely an insipid Phlegm in the abstraction and distillation, and the Irons retains all the acidity of the Salt, and remains a red, sweetish, astringent Juice.
Take of this, and of the Saturnine Powder which we taught you the making of but now, of each alike weight, and put them into a well coated Retort, and the Saccharum Saturni will presently drink up the Juice of the Steel. Put the Retort in a Vessel fill’d with Sand, and augment the Fire by little and little that all the insipid Phlegm may be wholly drawn off. When ’tis all come off, and that acid drops begin to come, then must you apply thereunto a Glass Receiver, and the Fire is to be encreased by degrees untill the Retort be throughly red hot, which must continue so about an hour, or half an hour a least. By this means, the Spirits of the Salt which were in the Steel, do almost wholly come over into the Receiver, and do carry over with them [the Spirits] of the Saccharum Saturni, and oil of Mars, in the form of a red sublimate, which settles it self in the neck of the Retort, which sublimate when the Retort is cold and broken you must take out of its Neck, and keep it from the Air, for in the Air it will dissolve into a red, sweet, and Astringent Oil, of no small virtues in Medicine and Alchymy. In the bottom of the Retort you will find a molten Mass, resembling Lapis Hæmatitis, which being separated from all defilements, will give you a red, brittle, fusile Stone, and in some sort astringent, of great virtues in Medicine, and without doubt in Alchymy too, if it were but first made constantly to abide in the Fire. And even this too, must you keep from the Air, for it is still impregnated with the Salts, and therefore is easily resolved.
Now when you would make use of this Stone in Medicine, break a little bit thereof into small Powder (for it is no harder than other Salt, and therefore doth easily admit of grinding to Powder.) This Powder heals both internal and external Wounds and Ulcers, being administred in the quantity of two, three, four, five, six, or more Grains, according to the age and condition of the Sick, and being taken in a convenient and proper Vehicle, it is highly Sanative and a stopper of Bloud. Being applied externally to Wounds, it wonderfully forwards healing; hinders all Symptoms, and fundamentally dries, and cures all Ulcers and Fistulaes, if used outwardly and inwardly too.
It doth most safely and most certainly help all the overflowing of the Menses in Women, and is so excellent a Medicament in the Dysentery, Lientery, and other Fluxes of the Belly, that its like is not to be found.
Thus have we that true and genuine Hæmatitis of the Ancient Physicians, of which they have written so many things, but what through the carelesness of the Physicians that succeded them, and what through the length of time it became wholly lost instead of which there hath been hitherto used the insoluble and hard Stone of Iron.
The Ancients imposed upon their more noble Medicaments, Names deduced from similitudes or resemblances, as may be seen in this our living Hæmatitis, and in the dead Hæmatatis of the common Physicians, which is call’d for at the Apothecaries, and administred to stop Bloud withall; But yet it is nothing else save the Stone of Iron, and such Oar as is very rich and abounding with this Metal, the fragments of which appears [either] in the form of spear-like Stria’s or Streeks, or like a cleft stone. This our live Hæmatitis is of the same form, but soluble, and is of a very pleasant and astringent sweetness, and containeth most efficacious virtues for the allaying of all bloody Fluxes both outward and inward. Now that common and well-known Hæmatitis doth not possess any more virtues than that Iron Scinder-dust which the Smiths smite off at the Anvil, doth. And as for that red Sublimate which ascended up in the neck of the Retort, it is twice stronger in subduing the afore-mentioned diseases, but it is not of so sweet a Tast as is the Stone it self, which resided in the bottom of the Retort. And being externally applied in cleansing and mundifying old Fistulous Ulcers, it works much stronger than this our Hæmatitis (which is more pleasantly administrable in internal defects) doth. But whoever he be that knows how (by many Solutions and Coagulations) to make this Stone constant in the fire, will obtain a far more excellent Medicament: concerning which, we will speak more in the end of this Treatise.
This now is such a Sawce or Junket, as every good Physician and Chyrurgeon hath just cause most highly to esteem in all Fluxes and Sores, both old and new, if he would obtain that repute which he thirsteth after; for it is endued with great Virtues, whereas on the contrary, the Juyce of Sloes, the common Hæmatitis, and Crocus martis, are, in comparison of this, to be accounted of as meer dead Medicaments. I could tell you of more virtues that are in the red Sublimate, and this in an especial manner, viz. that without being either bound on, or inwardly taken, but sympathetically and at a distance, it is able to cure any issues of Blood whatever. But I shall doe better to pass these things over in silence, because to the greatest part of unskilfull Men, they will not onely seem wonderfull, but impossible likewise. However, I commend to every ones acceptation this so excellent a Medicament, for all internal and external Issues of Blood, in all wounds and hurts, as also in all the obstructions of the Spleen, Liver, and other members of the body.
After such a manner as this, may any one easily turn all the Metals into Sugars, and into most excellent Medicaments. But forasmuch as the Metals are not all of them indifferently fit to be administred inwardly to the sick, I will make mention of Gold and Silver onely as being the best of all, and pass by the others, and will teach the preparation of yet more Sawces and Junkets; Copper, Tin, and Argent-[vive] are somewhat cruder bodies, and require greater care and diligence, to have the Title of good Medicaments. We will therefore let them pass, as having Gold and Silver at hand, which are more ripe.
The manner of Preparing a good Sawce or Junket out of Silver, which helpeth the Distempers and Diseases of the Brain.
The skilfull Chymical Physicians have assigned Silver for a Medicament for the Brain, which Assignment of theirs I acquiesce in, and doe here present you with such a Sawce or Junket as is of most especial use for the succouring of the Brain.