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

by Johann Rudolf Glauber

Besides, it most an end happens that the Master and Mistress being absent, the Houshold Affairs are very awkwardly administred and managed by the Children, the Men-servants, and Maid servants; and that common German Proverb doth usually take place; The Cat being out of the way, The Mice upon the Shelves do play. The truth of this is sufficiently testified by frequent Examples. And therefore it is much better to drink these acid Waters at Home, whereby both Money and Time is spared, and many evils prevented. And thus much may suffice to have been said concerning a refrigerating Drink.

And now, seeing we have at hand good Cheese and Butter, good Sawces or Cates, and delicate Drink, can we not be here with content? Verily in my Judgment here’s enough disht out for one Banquet. But some may say, in very good time! Glauber [indeed] does not onely teach us the preparation of good Meats, but likewise of Cheese, Butter, Sawces, [or Junkets,] and pretious Wine, but yet tells us not from whence the Milk to make the Cheese and Butter withall is to be had, nor whence the Sugar and Spices for the Cates, and the Grapes needfull to make the Wine with, are to be gotten? What benefit have we by knowing how to make Cheese and Butter, and yet want Cows to yield us Milk? To satisfie these, we will demonstrate unto them, that even both the Milk it self, and the precious Spices, and most excellent Grapes are all attainable by the help of Salt.

In my Treatise called Miraculum Mundi, as likewise in that called The continuation of the same, and in that Book, of the nature of Salts, I have clearly enough shown, that all the faculty of the Growth and Nourishment of all growing and movable Creatures doth take its rise and original out of Salt alone, and that the correction or melioration, not onely of Vegetables and Animals, but even of the Minerals too, is to be sought for from the same.

But forasmuch as this bettering of the Metals meets with but little credit and is very hardly believed and understood, (nay ’tis plainly thought a thing impossible to be effected,) I could not choose but manifest and demonstrate the truth of the same unto the whole World; namely, that like as the Metals are in long process of time maturated by Salt in the Bowels of the Earth: Even so may the same be likewise maturated, mundified, and amended out of the Earth, by Salt, by the help and benefit of Art; not onely by the moist way, but also by the dry, and that with one Fire, in one Furnace, and with one Servant, whom I will in this place call The Countryman paying his yearly Rent. When his belly is continually fill’d with Coles, his Plows never cease going, so that weekly, monthly and yearly he is able to pay his master the due hire, namely Gold and Silver, wherewith all things necessary for houshold expences may be gotten.

And although this Countryman, which I will here describe, be not that [great] Country-Farmer, which I have mentioned in the [Third Part of the Prosperity of Germany]: yet notwithstanding he is a little one, and one that will discover so much unto the ignorant as to cause them to believe that the things which I speak of are possible to be done, and that there is a yet richer and better Countryman. But this here is to be accounted as a small Cow, and which will however supply you with Milk, Butter and Cheese, for necessary uses, if not with Sugar, Spices, and Wine too, to be set out upon the Table. If this Country fellow be too little and small for any one, he may even provide himself of a better, and learn by the consideration of this, by what means such Countrymen are to be nourished, that so the Rent may be gotten from him in its due time.

A. The little Country Tenant with one Plow. B. The Countryman with three Plows. C. The Countryman’s Cap. D. His three Plows. E. The Registers to govern the Fire by. F. The Glass set in with his Alembick and Receiver. G. The Door to shut the Crate. H. The Ash-hole. I. A Basket of Coals. [See the Fig. before the 3d. p. of the Prosperity of Germ. noted with pag. 76.]

In the first place you must prepare you some pounds of good Spirit of Salt, after the way which I prescribed with Vitriol, without which it will effect nothing, for out of this [Vitriol] it doth in the preparation carry over with it the spiritual Gold, or tinging Spirit, which said [spiritual Gold] is, in the performing of the operation, fixed, together with that spiritual Gold, which lyes hidden in the inferior Metals, and so becomes manifest.

Then (in the next place) you must build you a Furnace, which is called by the Chymists the slow Henry, or dull Harry, but I call it The little Country Farmer or yearly Renter: you may build it, I say, of what bigness you please; or for Example sake, the Tower which holds the Coles may be about Man-heighth, and about one Cubit broad in the inside, but so, that the top part and bottom part be narrower, and the middle part wider. To this Tower you must adjoyn two or three Furnaces, which are here called the Countryman’s Plows, and in which the Vessels are to be placed, which hold the Metals that are to be maturated by the Spirit of Salt, and which have a continual heat, whereby the never-ceasing coction is holpen from the Tower that contains the Coles. Now see that you make all things cleverly and well proportioned, whereby that the Fire may be well and commodiously governed, and may be conserved for twenty four hours at least, without any looking too or medling with, as may be seen by the now described Figure.

The Vessel, in which the Spirit of Salt, with the Metal, is to be exercised (or laboured) with a daily Coction, must be made of such matter as doth not flie with the heat of the fire, nor is not eaten with the sharpness of the Spirit, (but) such as may be seen in my Laboratory, and will for the most part dure and hold the Spirit of Salt a whole year without breaking.

All things being ready and fitted, the Countrymans Belly is to be filled with Coals up to the Neck, and his Head covered with a Cap, that the Fire may not find any out-let, save by the lower holes, through which, the heat may find an entrance into the adjoined Furnaces; and as for the Vessels, they are to be filled with the Spirit of Salt, and with Metals fitted for this Operation, and to be covered with their Alembicks, that the Spirits which ascend in the boiling may be received and conserved. When all the Spirits of the Salt are come over, they are to be again returned back upon the dried matter in the Cucurbit, and are to be agen drawn off by distillation. This operation and cohobation being often repeated, doth ripen and fix the spiritual Silver and Gold, whereby it becomes Corporeal: But yet the Spirit of Salt alone is not able to give Gold, but ripens Silver onely, but by the addition of other Salts, it will give Gold too. And even for the fixation of Silver, common Salt may be also added to the Spirit of Salt, that so the Spirit of the Salt may be made strong in the digestion; yea and in time so very strong, as to fume even in the cold Air, and therefore a little water may be also added besides the Salt.