If therefore you will make experiment of this Operation, adjoyn to one part of the Mercury of Lune or Saturn two parts of the white Ashes of Tin, which being well mixt and put into a Glass Cucurbit well fenced with Lure, set it into Sand, put Fire thereinto by little and little untill the matter in the Glass be well heated; in this darkish red hot heat, leave it so long untill some part of the matter doth ascend by sublimation up into the Alembick placed at top, and up the neck of the Cucurbit. Then you must put on another Alembick, and take out all the sublimate out of the former Alembick, and put it back upon its matter in the Cucurbit, and it is to be again left so long in the Fire, untill there doth again ascend some part by sublimation into the Head. This being taken out of the Head is to be again put into the Cucurbit, and to be added to its own matter, (and to be proceeded with) till again some portion sublimes up out of the matter into the Alembick. Now these labours are to be so often repeated, untill there ascends no more matter up into the Head, and all the matter abides behind in the bottom of the Cucurbit fixt. This being done, a stronger Fire is to be administred, that the Metals may be operated upon by the Salts. For by how much the more and longer they endure the violence of the Salts, so much the better do they grow, which being taken forth and reduced by the adding unto them their due matters and being separated by a Cupel do yield forth a notable encrease of Gold and Silver.
This undoubted Experiment and evident Demonstration, doth (by its evident Operation) clearly and perspicuously teach and prove the melioration and transmutation of the Metals into better and more pure; but if this way seems to any very laborious and full of troubles, I will show him a more compendious way and such as is of less labour, for the sake of searching out the truth.
Fill a Hassiak Crucible (one of the best make) with the self same mixture, viz. one part of the Mercury of Saturn, and two parts of Tin-ashes, and squeeze in the matter thereinto with your Thumb pretty hard, and fit at top of this Pot, another somewhat lesser, so as that they may shut close and tight at their mouths, and one may not fall off from the other, if they be turned (topsie turvy:) Now in this upper Pot, put some Plates of Copper in, afore you place it on the lower one, yet on such wise that in the turning the Pots (up and down) they fall not out of their places. Each Pot likewise is to be well fenced with Lute such as will not chap when it is dried, and yet it may be mended if it should a little cleave by dawbing some more on, and this is done, that no fume at all get out. The Lute being dried, place this double Pot or Crucible in a circular Fire, and augment the Fire more and more, and move it nearer and nearer it untill it be well heated. Then put thereto larger Coals, and cover the Pot all over with them, that it may be every where red hot, in which great heat of the Fire it is to be left some two or three hours. Then being cool, take out and open your Pot, and you shall find the Copper Plates in some sort tinged with a white colour, but yet this colour is not so constant and fix as to abide in the Cupel or on the Test with its Body. Therefore necessity requires that those Plates be dissolved in Aqua Fortis, and be precipitated by pouring thereon Salt dissolved in common Water, in which precipitation the Silver Calx settles to the bottom. This Calx being freed of its Saltness by pouring Water thereon, and being dried, is to be wrapt up in a Plate of Lead, or some sheet Lead made as thin as Paper, and be put on a red hot Test, in which there must be a little Lead in Flux, which may the more readily receive the silvery Calx wrapt up in the leaden Paper, and which is volatile, and may hinder it from going away in fume; the Lead being consumed, there will be a grain of Silver abiding on the Test, which being dissolved in Aqua Fortis, will let fall some Gold to the bottom. If any of the remaining matter in the Crucible be to be reduced, then boil it with Lead, and let it be reduced into Scoria’s: out of the Regulus will there also remain on the Test a grain of Silver containing Gold in it. But this way brings no profit, as being here taught for this onely end to demonstrate the possibility of the thing. But if you would get any profit by such an Operation, it will be altogether necessary to use such Vessels in which nothing at all may go away in fume, but all the matter may abide together, and may so get a fixity and constancy: and this cannot be done in Crucibles, but it will bring a profitable melioration by the said way.
Some may now demand from whence that Gold and Silver should come? whether out of the Lead or out of the Tin? doubtlesly it comes from both. And therefore seeing the Copper Plates in this Cementation, as likewise the cementing powder it self have put on a golden and silvery nature, can any one doubt that this is a true Transmutation by Fire and Salt? And this is especially manifest even from the Copper Plates, which had nothing at all toucht them, save the saline Spirits ascending up out of the Cementatory Powder, which in the heat of the Fire penetrated the Copper, and amended it in so short a time. Is there any one now so blinded as that he cannot here see, that this bettering the Metals proceeded from Salt and Fire. Certainly no body will be able to heal him that is blinded with such a darkness of his sight, and therefore must he even lie all his lifes time in such obscure mists. For this Operation is set down so clearly and evidently that it may be even felt and perceived with the hands.
N. B. If so be any one is desirous of getting more Gold and Silver by the help of this Operation, he may use the Mercury of Lune instead of the Mercury of Lead, for it will yield far more than Saturn will.
I could exhibit no small variety of these kind of Experiments, but that the shortness of time bids me stop, and forbear their description; those that cannot learn ought from these things, greater ones will not be at all usefull unto them. Thus have I a-new evidently demonstrated, that a particular melioration of the Metals is done by, and proceeds from Salt and Fire alone.
An infallible demonstration, that a true tincture or universal Medicine may be made by Salt and Fire, for the melioration of Metals.
Recipe one pound of the Mercury of Lead, or rather of Lune, of the Ashes of Tin two pounds, mix these matters together and put them into a Glass Retort coated, and put it in Sand, or rather in an open Fire, and give a Fire by degrees. In this Operation, the Salts inhering in the Mercury of Saturn or Lune, do display or exercise their virtues upon Jupiter, and seize upon it and leave the Lune or Lead, and ascend up into the neck of the Retort like Mercury sublimate, and are very heavy and ponderous, and do very rarely fall down into the Receiver, because they presently settle assoon as ever they feel any Refrigeration. Therefore it is needfull that the neck of the Retort be somewhat wide, that so the Mercury sublimate may meet with space and room enough, and may not by wanting room break the Retort. Now when the Retort has been kept three hours in a red hot heat, which time is requisite for the Mercury sublimate to ascend in, then cease from continuing or keeping on your Fire, that so it may cool. Then take out the sublimate out of the neck of the Retort when cold, and you shall find about some eight Lots 4 Ounces, and proceed with it the way following, as we shall by and by tell you.
Mix the Reliques or what is left, with two parts of Regulus of Antimony made with Iron, and melt it into a body: Wash off the Regulus and Tin from the Silver with Salt-peter, and you shall have your Silver not onely encreased by the Jupiter, but also indued with somewhat of a golden nature; as much as the Salts could maturate in so short a time, which is indeed a speedy Transmutation. But if you use Mercury of Saturn, there will not follow much amendment in so short a time. Yet nevertheless, that even the truth it self may even by this means be searcht out, there may be added a little Lead, and be boiled and reduced into Scoria’s, in which there will remain a grain of Silver, which will give you information, how much melioration the saline Spirits are able to bestow in three or four hours space.
But this is not the right way of getting profit, for as much as it shows onely the possibility of the thing.