Hermetic and Alchemical Writings (Coelum Philosophorum, Aurora of the Philosophers, Concerning the Nature of Things, ...)

No less is this to be understood of herbs, which last only for a single year, because their predestination is no longer. For they, even when they begin to be dried up, are renewed by their primal, matter, so that they remain green and fresh for another annual period, or for a third, a fourth, or more. The same thing understand of brute beasts, as, for instance, old sheep and other animals. They can be renewed for a fresh period of life, having received their virtues, such as milk and wool, like young sheep. Equally, too, can man be led on from one age to another, as we have said before. From this it ought be known what the primal matter is according to its essence. In created things, such as have no sensation, it is their seed ; but in created beings endowed with sensation, it is their sperm. For it must be known that the primal matter is not to be taken from the thing out of which this created body is produced, but out of the produced and generated material. For the primal matter has in it such virtues that it will not allow the body which is born of it to ^o into consumption, but abundantly affords whatever is necessary for the supply of every requirement. Indeed, death only arises from the destruction or infection of the living spirit. Now, that spirit grows out

* According to one of his treatises on turpentine Paracelsus held that the ultimate matter is contained in that seed wherein God has digested each thing, but those more especially which are subject to natural growth, created by Himself. The primal matter is gross seed. It is the ultimate and not the primal matter, which, on the authority of this treatise, is useful to man. According to the tenth chapter of the Labyrintkns Medicpruin^ every growing thing whatsoever is in its lirst matter without form, or unformed. For example, the fir, the beech, the oak, are all in the beginning seed, wherein there is nothing which ought to be, that is, nothing which v/e should expect to find, having regard to what they become subsequently. But if such a seed be put into the ground, it is needful that it should first putrefy. Otherwise nothing is produced from it. When it putrefies, it dissolves altogether, and from being a seed it becomes nothing, but, at the same time, the putrefaction is the first matter from which the tree develops. of the sperm, or out of the seed, and is altogether a spermatic substance ; therefore it can be helped by its like. For wherever the like is given as a help, there is introduced a new period of life, for many causes which we do not detail in this place, but make clear in our " Philosophy."* Furthermore, although we

did not propose to write in this book anything about the nourishment and renovation of trees, since we undertook to treat only of the medicine of the human body, still, let those facts about the trees and other transmutations of this kind be set down, in order that, parabolically, and by those examples, we may make our meaning easier to be understood. The quintessence of the seed of the nettle (otherwise the lavender) if it be poured on to any root of its own herb, so that this herb may receive its tincture and be affected by it, it remains another year as in the former year, not putrefying until that second year shall have been completed.

In like manner, if the quintessence of the seed of quinces be poured on the root of a quince tree, the tree remains green to the end of another year, and also produces flowers and fruits. In the same way, the quintessence of cherries causes trees to put forth their fruits twice in a year, as if in two summers ; one is the middle summer of the seasonable cherry trees, and the other summer is made like the former. Not only, therefore, is it fit that we should speak of the quintessence of the sperm, but also concerning the arcanum of the sperm, from which proceed far more wonderful things than we have already pointed out. So then, let us first make clear the process of this practice. In the first place, it is alike among men and animals. Secondly, it is made out of primal matter only in the following way : Take primal matter, let it digest in a flaccum in a resolutive digestion for a month. To this let there be joined the addition of a monarchy of equal weight. Let them be suffered to digest again from one to two months. Then distil this matter [? by the cloth] and what ascends will be the arcanum of the primal matter, concerning which we are here writing. And let no one wonder at the brevity of this method or process, for complexity is apt to involve much error.

Concerning the Arcanum of the Philosophers' Stone. I am neither the author nor the executor of that Philosophers' Stone, which is differently described by others ; still less am I a searcher into it, so that I should speak of it by hearsay, or from having read about it. Therefore, since I have no certainty thereof, I will leave that process and pursue my own, as being that which has been found out by me through use and practical experiment. And I call it the Philosophers' Stone, because it affects the • Paracelsus has bequeathed to his followers a Philosophy of the Four Elements, a Philosophy addressed to the Athenians, an Occult Philosophy, Five Philosophical Tracts, and a vast system under the title of Philosophia Sagax. The connection of the living spirit with the sperm is discussed very largely in most or all of these, as, indeed, elsewhere in his writings. Under these circumstances there is scarcely any need, as, in fact, there would be great difficulty to distinguish the special section to which reference is here made. bodies of men just as their's does, that is, just as they write of their own. Mine, however, is not prepared according to their process ; for that is not what we mean in this place, nor do we even understand it. We do not set down in this our practical treatise the process of the operation, since we have before mentioned it in the beginning of this book when we were writing of its force and its effects, which it has by means of separation.

Concerning the entrance of this penetration, you shall also further note, by which entrance it penetrates the body and all that therein is. For by that penetration it restores and renews it, not that it removes the body altogether, and introduces a new body in its place, or that, like the primal matter, it infuses its spermatic arcanum thereinto, but that it so purges the old whole body as the skin of the salamander is purged, without any injury or defect, and the old skin none the less remains in its essence and form. In like manner, this Philosophers' Stone purifies the heart and all the principal members, as well as the intestines, the marrow, and whatever else is contained in the body. It does not allow any disease to germinate in the body ; but the gout, the dropsy, the jaundice, the colic, fly from it, and it expels all the illnesses which proceed from the four humours ; at the same time, purges bodies and renders them just as though they were newly born. It banishes everything that has a tendency to destroy nature, none otherwise than as fire does with worms. Even so, all weaknesses fly before this renovation.

This Philosophers' Stone has forces of this kind, whereby it expels so many and such wonderful diseases, not by its complexion, or its specific form, or its property, or by any accidental quality, but by the powers of a subtle practice, wherewith it is endued by the preparations, the reverberations, the sublimations, the digestions, the distillations, and afterwards by various reductions and resolutions, all which operations of this kind bring the stone to such subtlety and such a point of power as is wonderful. Not that it had those powers originally, but that they are subsequently assigned to it. Something like this is to be understood in the case of honey, which, by its elevations becomes far sharper than any aquafortis or any corrosive, and more penetrating than any sublimate. Such a property of sharpness it has not by nature, but this proceeds solely from the elevation, which changes all the honey into a corrosive. In these eff"ectual Arcana, too, it must be considered that those who use them, as well as the children sprung from them, live afterwards endued with such health that no sickness or ailment, or anything like a flaw, afterwards happens to their bodies, but they are adorned altogether with such a subtle and pure complexion of Nature, that it is impossible a more noble state of the complexion can be induced. For that most choice and excellent medicine effectually renews and purifies, and introduces an incorruptible life, which cannot be contaminated by any kind of life. It suffers nothing to become enfeebled, but secures that men shall live in the highest nobility of Nature, while it advances their offspring to the tenth generation.

This Philosophers' Stone not only transmutes one weight, but this transmutes another, and this again another, and so on, in so far that these mutations might be extended ahtiost endlessly, just as one light kindles a second, and this second a third. So it should be understood of the Philosophers' Stone in relation to health, as out of a good tree good seed and good shoots are born, out of which again good trees are produced. The power and potency of the Philosophic Stone is exalted to so wonderful an extent that it is impossible to trace how it can be naturally brought about ; and unless most evident signs lay open to our eyes, it would be incredible that men could perfect and accomplish such wonderful things ; since the virtue of that operation passes from generation to generation without any break. On the other hand, by the mercy of God, it exists in one body, and at length, according to their deserts, it is either denied to others or conceded as a special act of grace. Now let us set down the process of our Philosophic Stone in the following manner. In the name of the Lord, take Mercury, otherwise the element of mercury, and separate the pure from the impure. Afterwards let it be reverberated even to whiteness, and then sublimate this by sal ammoniac until it is resolved. Let it be calcined and again dissolved, and digested in a pelican for a month.

Then let it be coagulated into a body. This body no longer burns nor is consumed in any way, but remains in the same state. Those bodies which it penetrates are permanent in the cineritia, and cannot be reduced to nothing or altered ; but the stone takes away every superfluous quality from sensible and insensible things, as we have before related. And although we have set down a very short way, nevertheless it requires a prolix labour, difficult in its adjuncts, and requires an operator who is affected by no weariness, but is in the highest degree active and expert.

Concerning the Mercurius Vit^. Next in order we wish to write concerning the Mercurius VitcB, the virtue of which far excels the virtues of the two preceding Arcana ; for that virtue consists, not in the art or in the operation, but in the Mercurius Vita itself, like which we have never known any simple anywhere existent ; forasmuch as that nature and property is innate therein, not from the virtues of the quintessence or of the elements, but from the specific quality of its predestination. Neither has it only the virtues of transmuting persons and other essential things, but also of renewing every growing thing, and their likes, out of the old quality into a new, after the following manner. The Mercurius VitcB reduces Mars into its primal matter, and again transmutes it into its perfect matter, so that out of it iron is again made. It also renovates gold in the same way, because it reduces it into proper mercury and tincture, and again digests it into gold, so that it becomes a metal as before. Nor, in truth, does.it operate in metals only, but similarly in other bodies, as in herbs. When their roots are suffused with it they will bring forth a second crop of flowers and fruits. If the first seed has fallen off, and they are at that time suffused with the same, they will produce second flowers and fruits, irrespectively of the season.

And none otherwise must it be understood of animals than of men and other things. When this Mercury is applied it renovates all their old and consumed members, and restores the defective and lost powers into a youthful body or abode, so that in old women the menses and the blood flow naturally as in young ones. It also brings back aged women to the same perfection of nature as the younger ones. Concerning the arcanum of life it is further to be remarked that its forces exist so potentially in its specific form that it separates the old from the new, or age from youth ; that it augments the latter, and so renovates the period of life. Whence it may be inferred that youth and its powers do not fail on account of old age, but that these exist equally in the old as in the young. The corruption, however, which grows up with youth is so strengthened that it takes away the powers, whence old age is recognised. As soon, therefore, as this corruption is separated from youth, that youth again manifests itself without let or hindrance. Now this must be understood thus : When any body or corpse putrefies, the quintessence thereof is not putrefied, but remains fresh and unconsumed, and is separated from the corpse into air, or sometimes it is scattered into the earth or into the water, according to the place whither it goes.

For there can no destruction of the quintessence occur, a fact which must be clearly noted and regarded with admiration, as we teach in our treatise on Corruption and Generation.* So, also, a rose putrefied in dung retains its quintessence in itself, even whilst in the dung. Though everything becomes foetid and putrid, still, in the separation of the pure from the impure, the quintessence lives without spot or blemish, though the bodies are noisome corpses. Thus, therefore, we say of the Mercurius VitcB that it separates corruption, even as in wood it separates that which is decayed. So powerful, also, is it in man, that, after the corruption shall have been separated from him, the quintessence is again excited, and lives as in youth. And this is to be understood thus : Not that the Mercurius Vita stirs up a new essence, as some persons may malignantly interpret our opinion and experience, but that the essence and the youthful spirit whence proceed the forces of youth remain unconsumed, none the less, though, being oppressed, they are beheld as dead. The Mercurius Vitce removes the impurity, whence it happens that the aged life recovers most effectually its powers as they were before. As we said above when speaking of the kingfisher, it is renewed after death for this reason, that the quintessence does not

* The reference does not correspond to the trecitise on the Nature of Things, and there is no other extant under this exact title. withdraw from its abode. But if that dwelling-place be dissolved by putrefaction, then the quintessence is received into that upon which it lies. Whence it happens that there are often found wonderful conditions of Nature in growing things, not naturally existing in them, but by some accident of this kind, as we set it down in our book on Generations. In this way, then, the matter is to be understood. In dung there meet and are accumulated many corruptions, as from herbs, roots, fruits, waters, and other like things. Whence it happens that fields are rendered fat and fertile, not on account of the corruption, but on account of the quintessence existing in the dung, which, betaking itself to the roots, exhibits power in the growing things though the body, that is, the dung vanishes and is reduced into nothingness, its substance being consumed. Wherefore human dung has great virtue in it, because it contains in itself noble essences, as of the food and the drink, concerning which wonderful things might be written. For the body receives from it nothing save nutriment, but not the essence, as we write in our treatise on Nutriments.*

We will come, then, more strictly to the practical view of Mercurius VitcB, which, as we said before, perfects its operations in a wonderful manner, as, for instance, by shedding the nails of the hands and the feet, and plucking out grey hairs by the roots, it strengthens youth, so that corruption cannot demonstrate old age by those signs unless a second old age be again attained. Now, approaching the practice, let us treat with alchemists in a fev/ words; for there is no need to write much or to preach with prolixity to them. Pretenders and fools we will altogether exclude. Let this, then, be the method of practice : Take essentialised mercury ; separate it from all superfluity, that is, the pure from the impure. Then sublimate it with antimony, so that both may ascend and become one. Then let them be resolved upon marble and coagulated four times. This being done, you will have the Mercurius Vitce, about which we have before spoken, and with which, as with an arcanum, we will console our own old age. Concerning the Arcanum of the Tincture. None otherwise is the arcanum of the tincture to be understood, namely, that it takes away all the inconvenience from old age, all diseases, and whatever corrupts the health or has an influence contrary to it. This arcanum is a certain tincture of such properties and conditions that it operates and induces health, not in the same way as the preceding three arcana, but according to its own name. The tincture tinges the good and the evil, the dense and the subtle. None, otherwise, does this perfect its operations on the body so as to transmute corrupt and ilL-disposed complexions into sound ones, just like that

* This is another treatise which apparently is wanting. tincture which makes Luna out of Mercury ; it does not separate from it what is evil, but it tinges both the good and the evil, so that in the end they both turn out to be excellent. So, too, this tincture tinges the dropsical and jaundiced body and makes it sound, not because the dropsy is taken away, the origin driven out or separated from the good, but it is transmuted into good, as it should be, and is settled in its highest and best grade, in like manner as the corrupted dung may, by the subtle corruption of art, be converted into an elixir, which drives away all corruption ; that corruption not being separated, but the entire substance being transmuted into another quality and nature. The same is to be thought concerning this tincture, that it tinges the body apart from all separation of the evil from the good, or expulsion of man's original essence, but by his renovation. Yet it should be known that the tinged body no longer lives in its old form, but, like a metal, is transmuted into another, as into copper or some other. Saturn has not in itself its old quality, but the quality of the tincture itself. None otherwise must it be thought of tinged bodies which have received the tinging of the tincture, that they exist no more in the former life from which they were transmuted ^by the tincture, but far nobler, better, and more healthful is the condition of the body and the form than its native origin was ;

and it is like natural gold made out of iron by the tincture, as we have also written concerning Transmutations. If, therefore, this tincture is a transmuter of bodies into better ones, as in the case of metals which so few know or have tried, there will be as many and various corporal as there are metallic tinctures. And as of these one is always better than another, so with the corporal tinctures. It must be considered that some tinge and are tinctures naturally, as the crocus, flower, sulphur ; some are made by art, as a stone, realgar, and others. It is highly necessary that these things should be understood, because the beginning and the entrance to these tinctures which they exhibit is not unimportant. Moreover, it is to be remarked that these tinctures ought to be made for the seven principal members, and that to every one of them its own property ought to be assigned and given, as to the heart those that serve the heart, to the brain those which belong to it ; and such tinctures should be prepared from metals, herbs, and like things which are proper. So it will happen that by them the whole body will be tinged. Nor will it suffice that it be tinged by one tincture only, but as one tincture tinges only one metal, so must it be judged of these. The practical preparation of the Tincture should be as follows : —

Take the essence of the members, from which you will separate the elements. Afterwards put the fire of them in digestion, and leave it so long until there remains nothing more at the bottom and nothing of the matter appears substantially. Then take the matter, and the glass luted in this way with the lute of Hermes ; put it in a moist, cold place, where again it will be resolved into visible matter. That visible matter is the one concerning which we have written. With these few words we conclude : for if we were to write more concerning it, that would be a handle for the derision of the stoics.* From this we would fain be exempt, and speak only to alchemists. * In another place Paracelsus affirms that arcana are not old things but new, not ancient but recent productions. The ancient productions are substances and forms as they exist in the world. And as the form of these things is no good to us, but must be resolved and renovated in order that it may be of use, so there is needed in addition the removal of all properties, whether of heat or cold. That is, unless the solatrum lose its cold it does not become a medicine. Similarly, unless anacardi lose their heat they will in no wIsq prove a remedy. In short, unless all the old natures pass away and are removed, and are brought over into a new birth, they will never be made into medicines. This removal is the beginning of the separation of the bad from the good. Thus, therefore, the latest medicine, that is, born recently, is left, without any complexion and the like, a pure and absolute arcanum.— /'rt?-rt;«zV«»/, Lib. II., De Origiite Morhoruin ex Tribns Friniis Substaniiisy c. 2.

The End of the Fifth Book of the Archidoxies from the Theophrastia, Concerning Arcana.

From the Theophrastia of Paracelsus the Great. THE preceding books on most excellent medicines having been finished, we propose to add this one treating of the Magisteries : and first to declare what a magistery is. It is, then, that which, apart from separation or any preparation of the elements, can be extracted out of things ; and yet by the addition of something the powers aud virtues of those things are attracted to that material and kept there. Those virtues do not in any way proceed from Nature, so far as their operation is concerned, nor from a specific virtue, but from a mixture whereby virtues of the same kind are attracted. If vinegar be poured into wine it renders the whole vinegar. Now, this is a magistery. When wine is poured upon honey the wine is so transmuted ; so there is no magistery in that case. Those things, therefore, must be considered which relate to a magistery, even as wines do to vinegar. For such as are perfect, or, as should be the case, ill adapted for this purpose, cannot produce a magistery. So, then, the natures of things come to be considered. In the same way, the difference of the extractions of magisteries must be noted, as, for instance, out of metals, marchasites, stones, herbs, and the like matters, by those things which are not metallic, but which become like metals, just as wine is made like vinegar in its powers, its virtues, and its taste. The cause that wine does not appear different from vinegar is, that a nature like vinegar exists in it, whence it happens that the appearance of their natures is the same. If, in like manner, the nature of metals be but pure, it equally appears in their magisteries, but yet it is not of the same property.

Moreover, mention must be made of additions. Those things which are taken for this purpose, though they are not of one and the same complexion, power, or action, nevertheless agree in preparation, since that which results from power of this kind is appropriated and not complexioned. By means of these substances the metals aflFord their magisteries, which, indeed, are no less to be accounted of than quintessences on account of their virtues. Gold in its magistery lays down all its quality and complexion in one essence. It must not for that reason be supposed that because the body is of no account the rest will therefore be infected with that failing ; for in this case its leprosy is in no way injurious, but the thing is entirely good. Sugar, again, is wholly sweet whilst as yet it remains in the body and is not separated, and it can be so prepared, while retaining its sweetness, that it shall turn out by far sweeter and more efficacious than it was before. But the quintessence when extracted is not sweeter than when in or with its own body. Wherefore, this body by no means brings loss to it. But still its virtue separated from the body is less than when prepared in or with it. The magistery amends it more than Nature can be supposed to do.

The same must be understood of stones, which enter into the number of magisteries, and also of their bodies, namely, that what is assumed for their use is not deficient in its virtue, but is a sufficiently powerful magistery. This you may understand thus, as when sulphur is lighted and burnt up ; that which burns is the very smallest part ; and so likewise stones ; for example, the crystal, when it is reduced to a magistery, brings all stones to their first matter, and grinds them in a wonderful manner, in the same way as its essence does, for this reason, that the nature is tinged by the quintessence, and may be held for a quintessence, as in the case of the vinegar and the wine, of which the one makes the other like itself without any defect. In like manner, it is not only in stones that tincture of this kind is made, but also in metals, as the quintessence of gold tinges all its body into a pure quintessence, which light we think great, and even too great, for it is the light of all the secrets in our Archidoxies : wherefore we kindle coals with a light mind, so that we may investigate the final end of these secrets of Nature. We derive our instruction from examples proved experimentally by ourselves, as in magisteries, and chiefly in that of gold, which, containing the body and the quintessence, is drawn therefrom just as the quintessence is. Wherefore our magisteries are known to be dowered with special virtues, and we write them down to our own praise even until death.

We speak also in like manner concerning the magisteries of herbs, which indeed are so efficacious that half an ounce of them operates more than a hundred ounces of their body, because scarcely the hundredth part is quintessence. So, then, the quantity thereof being so very small, a greater mass of it has to be used and administered, which is not required in the case of magisteries ; for in these the whole quantity of the herbs is reduced into a magistery, which is not then, on account of its artificial character, to be judged inferior to the true extracted quintessence itself. One part of this being exhibited is of more avail than a hundred parts of a similar body, for this reason, because the magisteries are prepared and rendered acute to the highest degree, and are brought to a quality equal to a quintessence, in which magisteries all the virtues and powers of the body are present, and from these its own helping power arises to it. For in them the penetrability and the power of the whole body exist, from the mixture that is made with it. For the body receives none of those things with any desire except such as VOL. II. E

are spiritual to it. Whence it happens that it attracts that magistery and mingles itself therewith none otherwise than as gold attracts to itself the Mercurius Vitce, and is mingled therewith. Now, iron does not do this, because they are not, in their composition, so much in agreement with each other. So, then, both the body of it and this magistery are amalgamated, and become one ; and hereof many examples may be found which need not be brought forward in this place. Some of the marchasites, too, perform the office of a medicine in a like way, although with a difference : that is to say, they leave their body, and the best part of them, as the juice, is extracted, and none the less exists as a magistery, though the body be separated from it. This, however, must be understood, that it is not the body of the marchasite, but rather of the earth or the mineral in which the marchasite exists. Its virtue, therefore, is not efficacious of itself, that the earth or the mineral should be separated from it, but it abides therein as in a marchasite, which, indeed, it is thought to be. In order, therefore, to make it clear concerning a marchasite, what it is, whence produced, and with what virtues endowed, we wish to relate its practice in the following treatises, and also to describe the art of its preparation. The process, however, cannot be comprised in one general explanation, but the matter must be treated of particularly, concerning each special case, as of metals by themselves, marchasites, too, in particular, and also stones and herbs.

There is, likewise, reckoned a special magistery of the blood, which is taught in a peculiar form and manner. In it is considered what virtues and forces of man exist, and what its nature contains in itself, in what there is any defect produced, and so on ; but still, without diminution of the natural creation, but that it may be considered as a complete and perfect work in all its parts, as a bird with all its feathers. Concerning the Extraction of the Magistery from Metals. First of all, we will set down the magistery from metals, and make that clear which openly shews itself to be of wonderful virtues, which are to be known according to the tenour of its essence. The process of them must be carried on without any corrosives and all things which are complexioned contrary to the metals. For, from the conjunction or mixture of contrary things, the essences are corrupted, so that, on account of this error, they put forth no virtues, since the one contrary or the other predominates and prevails. Seeing, therefore, that great account is to be taken of agreement, only the temperate will agree therewith. Consequently you must know what is a temperate thing. A temperate body is one of a certain complexion ; this receives another into itself, and is incorporated with that which shall be joined to it, so that it no longer displays its old and special complexion, but only the virtues of that which has been added to it. So, forsooth, vmum ardens has in

itself a full and perfect complexion ; but yet, whatever is put therein, it, so to say, complexionates more abundantly, fulfilling its operation thus, according to the power of that which was put into it. Since, then, it attracts the virtues of other things and subdues its own, it is on this account said to be temperate, and is deservedly so called. Here some differences call for notice ; we understand the elements only, so that we are able to say of oil that it draws to itself foreign natures and hides its own element. From anything like these a magistery ought to be made, so that the virtues of the metals may pass into the same temperate thing, may be cleansed and purified therewith, and may be distilled to their own end. A magistery like this, after it has been purified, shall be called potable, because it can be taken in drink : whence it comes that the magistery of gold is called aurum potabile, that of the moon argentum potabile, so also iron, lead, quicksilver, etc., will be capable of being made potable, and so called and described according to their complexions, in relation to which processes they have far greater operation than it becomes us to describe. After the following manner, with one temperate thing, and by one process, as also by one practical method, all the magisteries of the seven metals can be made. The practical method is as follows : —

Take circulatum thoroughly purified, even to its highest essence, in which place very thin metallic plates or filings of any metal you please, perfectly and subtly wrought and purified. When these two have been put together in a sufficient weight, let them be circulated for four weeks, and by means of this temperate medium, the leaves will be reduced into an oil, and into the form of a fattiness swimming at the top, coloured according to the condition of the particular metal which you shall separate by means of a silver attractorium from the circulatum. This same is the potable gold or silver. The like is extracted with the other metals, and may be taken as drink, or with food, without any harm. The Extraction of the Magistery out of Pearls, Corals, The Magistery from precious stones is to be understood in the same way as from metals, according to the virtues which each stone has in harmony with its nature. It must be remarked, however, that for stones there is no need of a temperate medium, or of any addition whatsoever, because the solution of them is not the same as the resolution of metals, but the magistery of them is extracted in another way ; in the practice of which three processes

are understood, one for gems, another for marchasites, and a third for corals, according to which stony growing things may be brought each into its own magistery. In the process of stones, the colours need not be considered, nor their brightness be taken into account, since all their magisteries have a white colour. So also pearls, with the exception of corals, which retain their colours in a remarkable way above others in the magistery. In them, there- fore, the colour is chiefly to be noted ; for the magistery of them, together with the body and the element and the whole essence, is extracted by means of additions, without any corruption. None the less, however, they may again be restored to their perfection. Wherefore, in respect of their generation and nature, they cannot be compared to stones, and yet they have a stony condition. This, too, may be done : the whole colour may be extracted out of the body of corals into another medium, and afterwards from their body a form may be made as if from clay. After this formation the colour can be again infused, so that it becomes a coral as before. This cannot be done with pearls or gems, which are unable to return to their perfection by a similar process, but they remain in their magistery, their essence not having been corrupted. We have even seen this penetrate glass and instruments, and form them according to its nature.

The magistery of the magnet has drawn things towards itself, in the form and after the manner of the material magnet, and afterwards it has fixed itself in the glass and tinged that, so that this also has attracted needles and straws. None otherwise must it be understood of the rest. Therefore they must be kept in gold only. More of these things have occurred to us than is credible, whereof we put together this record, so that from this inducement other persons also may investigate the arts and the magisteries. Since, therefore, they exhibit a demonstration apart from other extractions, we will now teach the practice of them in the following manner. First we will speak of gems.

Take gems, having first bruised them and calcined them according to the reverberatory condition, together with common salt-nitre, of an equal weight, that is to say, one pound. Let these be burnt together into the form of lime, and afterwards washed in vinum ardens until no surplus matter can be found. After the washing, calcine this substance again, and cause the whole of it together to pass through the vinum ardens. Let this evaporate by boiling ; and thus you will have an alkali, which dissolve in water and keep. There is no reason why you should fear to make use of this administration, since, however sharp and calcined it may be, with all its sharpness it only affects that which resists it ; and it is so subtle, that one single drop alone tinges the whole body so as to produce a remarkable virtue. Pearls, too, are to be reduced to a water in the following way, namely : Take corrected vinegar, in which place bruised pearls, and let them digest therein for a month ; so that they will be reduced to a water. Then distil it, and separate the acetum from it by a bath, having done which, you shall find the pearls in the bottom resolved into water. This is the magistery of pearls or unions. And although the process of this practice is a short and easy way, nevertheless, give credence to one who has tried it ; for the operation of these same things is indeed wonderful. This action of their virtues, however, is not produced by art, but is placed in the nature of them, which is hidden in a dense substance, on account of which it cannot operate, just as is the case with a dead body ; but by making a resolution its body will be

vitalised.* Enough of this. Corals, hpwever, must be ground and calcined from the commencement with salt nitre ; then, afterwards, they must be prepared as gems are, and also resolved. So you have the magistery of corals, the virtues whereof I very much and specially wonder at, which God has bestowed on this growing thing, which also do operate powerfully and wonderfully, even as they grow. Concerning the Extraction of the Magistery out of Marchasites. Concerning the magistery of marchasites thus much must be known ; that they are only minerals. So, then, the mineral is not brought to its magistery, but only the true marchasite, as is also ascertained with regard to metals, since these do not pass into their magistery unless they shall have been first separated from their mineral. And although marchasites cannot well be separated from these, still this may none the less be done in the magisteries. There are, indeed, different kinds of marchasites, such as the golden, the silver, the golden talc, the white, the purple, the tin or bismuth, antimony, granite, and others of a like nature, for all of which there is only one appropriate extraction. In like manner, the virtues and powers of them manifest themselves in medicine according to the conditions of metallic operations. And although they do not exist as metals, none the less they have the properties of them. Wherefore, we set down only a few details about them, because we treat them more at length in our book on Extrinsicals.f There is a difference to be noted, according as they come together and agree one with another, as gold and the marchasite, antimony and lead, which, indeed, in their fabrication and constellation are compared one with the other, but are none the less separated in their virtue.

For in some marchasites there are more virtues than in the assimilated metals. This we see to be the case with lead and antimony, of which the one cures morphia, alopecia, and the like, and all scabs and scars, the leonine, the elephantine, the Tyrian, etc., which the magistery of lead or Saturn does not affect. So, then, the properties of this kind are to be noted, which are sometimes latent not only in great things but also, and that more abundantly, in smaller ones. Let us, therefore, go

* Among other virtues which Paracelsus attributes to the pearl is the increase of milk in women when the supply is deficient. Let the pearls be resolved into a liquor, otherwise an elixir, but in the body a ferment. Whatsoever other things are required for this ferment, these the body supplies. The quantity administered must be regulated by the experience of the physician. — De Aridura. Another method for the extraction of a medicament from pearls is as follows : -The matter in the form of a potable .sap is extracted from pearls, and this is so powerful that it can scarcely find its equal among sperms. Formula for compounding the Sup of Ptarls. — Take one pound of purest distilled vinegar, half a pound of circulated water of life, and four ounces of cleansed pearls. Reduce to a fine powder, prepare, digest with others for a month in a circulatorium. The matter of the pearls will then have sunk to the bottom like a thick liquor. Then separate the waters by effusion from the sap. Of this sap administer doses of six grains. There are many other processes for the extraction of this kind of sap, but the above is the most useful of all.— />*? Contractlur'u^ c. 3.

t The book concerning Extrinsicals, and that also concerning the Generation of Wines, mentioned a little further on, are unknown. A similar remark will apply to the treatise on the Properties of Things, which is cited in the seventh book. There is probably little doubt that many of these apparently missing works are merely the mis-stated titles of others which have come down to us. For example, the treatise on Physics which is quoted in Book VII. may be extant under a difl^erent name, or again, the reference may be to a projected treatise which was never accomplished. on to investigate this reason, why antimony has more virtues than its metal. Its body is not fixed, and not sufficiently digested into its own perfection, as is the case with Saturn, whence it assumes a volatile property. But the very material out of which it is produced is privative, and of a cleansing character, from its own natural property, as we set down in our book concerning Generations. Hence it happens that it purifies gold and silver more than does the fire or any other element. Thence, too, it proceeds that it cleanses and purges the body, even as gold and silver are freed thereby from all their impurities. The magistery of antimony drives out leprosy in a more than credible manner. And so, too, must it be understood of the others.

Let us now approach the practice by which we teach the preparations of the magisteries from all these substances, in the following manner : Take a marchasite, ground very small, and add to it so much dissolving water as will cover the breadth of six fingers. Let it be dissolved and subsequently putrefied for a month. Afterwards let it be distilled and separated, as we teach concerning the metals, which having done, you will have the magistery of whatever marchasite you selected. Concerning the Extraction of the Magistery from Fatty None otherwise must it be thought concerning the extraction of the magistery from fatty substances, as the fat of amber, of resins, of oils, and of other things, even as they appear in like material substances. Concerning these there are three methods of extracting their magisteries. One special method is that of amber, another of resins, and the other of fatty substances, such as oils, tallows, butter, and the like. For amber does not in any way admit of the same process as fatty substances, since its virtues would be lost. Resinous substances, again, do not allow the same practice as amber does, for it would be destructive to them. We will therefore teach the preparations of those magisteries in three ways, since such excellent virtues appear in fatty substances, and these in many forms. In cases where essences produce no effect these fatty substances render aid ; for they have that property on account of their specific and appropriate virtue, which is not found to be so perfect in other substances, neither, indeed, is it so. None otherwise than as the difference is between corals and gems when compared must it be understood of these things, since the practice is as follows ; and first concerning amber :

Take of amber well ground as much as seems good, and of circulatum a sufficient quantity. Digest them in a flat vessel in ashes for six days. Afterwards let the circulatum be distilled off from thence, and again poured on. Let this be repeated until an oil is found at the bottom ; which oil is the magistery of amber. This has revealed to us its wonderful virtues. May it continue so to do ! Resinous bodies are reduced to their magistery by the following method : Take of turpentine, gum, or resin, as much as you will. Place this in a luted glass vessel and let it be digested by itself for a month in a warm digestion. Afterwards, having mixed it with dissolving water, let it be boiled in vinum ardens for half an hour only. Then distil it in a blind alembic and let all stand for one day. Thus you will find certain oils distinct from one another, which separate. Each one of these is a magistery in its own nature. But the magisteries of. oils are made without the addition of dissolving waters ; and these in like manner have virtues corresponding with the virtues of their matter.

The Extraction of the Magistery from Growing Things. If we speak of growing things, we understand as growing things those which are green and afterwards wither, and again become green in their season, even as they were before. The magisteries of these are made and extracted from them in different ways, as, for instance, in one way from trees, in another from herbs ; the difference whereof consists in this, that the former is wood, the latter putrefiable matter. Therefore the leaves and flowers must be prepared as herbs are. Accordingly, we will set down these Magisteries separately. The preparation of the magistery of woods is as follows : — Take wood, cut sufficiently small, which put into a glazed pot able to stand the fire, and closely shut up. Let it be burnt in a coal fire for four hours. Then take it out and putrefy it in glass for a month. Afterwards distil it in ashes even to its last spirits, and when these are perceived, presently cease, so that the magistery may not acquire any evil odour from the fire. In this way you will have the magistery of the wood which you undertook to prepare. So, too, may seeds, roots, barks, and the like, which contain an oil in their material substance, be extracted. There lies hid in these extractions a greater art than is spoken of or understood, though the process is h^re shewn in its entirety.

Herbs, however, and other things of that kind, must be mixed with vinum ardens, and putrefied with it for a month. Then they must be distilled by the balneum maris, and that which is distilled must be again poured on. This must be repeated until the whole quantity of vinum ardens shall be four times less than the juices of the herbs. Distil this in a pelican with new additions for a month, and then separate it. When you have done this, you will have the magistery of that matter or that herb which you selected. We now wish to make clear the magistery of wine, which, indeed, appears to be endowed with countless virtues, since it receives a nature of the same kind from many virtues lying hid in the earth, as we set down in our treatise on The Generation of Wine. Now, it should be known that the magisteries of wine are produced in two ways, one of which we pass over in silence, because the practice thereof is common, such as we use in many extractions of wines. Some practical methods for this magistery of wine are here set down. Certain persons seek to extract it while the wine is still new and boiling, during the time of purifying. Some bury it, and leave it so a 100 days (or years). Most people separate it without fire. However, this may be done, I do not wish to write of it here. I will only hand down that method which I have proved experimentally. First of all, it should be known that wine is a very subtle spirit, though small in quantity, and contained in much phlegm. And although this be a quintessence, nevertheless, a magistery can be made from it, but by using a superior practice and process.

It should be known, too, that there are more and greater virtues in that wine which has not yet deposited its tartar, since there are sometimes more virtues in the tartar than in the wine itself. The age of wine, too, is more commendable than its youth or newness, for its spirit is more digested by the lapse of a longer than of a shorter time. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that the wine for this purpose has to be buried in the cold earth, and the vessel containing it must be closely shut below and above without any vent. In this way it is preserved for many hundreds of years without tartar. We are unwilling to speak here of any prolonged time, which would be tedious ; but, nevertheless, let this be committed to memory. So, too, that is not a magistery of wine which is extracted out of must, or new wine, but a magistery of must. Nor is it a sign of art to distil it with its own fseces, or its own phlegm, as with vinum ardens, because in this way the spirits of the wine, which are in its essence, are destroyed. This should on no account be done. So, the oftener the best vinegar is distilled, the farther does it withdraw from the spirit of wine. Wherefore, the utmost care must be used sp as to see that the quintessence shall not be in any way corrupted in the magisteries, but that it shall rather be increased and fortified in its virtues.

Again, when it is separated without fire, it cannot in any way be a magistery, since the substantiality is lacking to it. Also, it should be known that the spirit of the wine must be kept along with its substance and not with its phlegm. For in wine two substances are found : the one is vinous, in which is the spirit of the wine, and from which it cannot be separated ; the other is phlegmatic, which is mixed with the dregs, and with the sweet water. These should be separated from the true substance, as a metal is from its mineral, or from the earth.

It must be known concerning wine that the dregs and the phlegm are, as it were, the mineral, and that the substance of the wine is the body in which the essence is preserved, even as the essence of gold is latent in gold. According to which we put the practice on record, that so we may not forget it, as follows : — Take very old wine, the best you can get as to colour and taste, and of the same as much as you please. Pour this into a glass vessel, so that a third part thereof may be full. Close it hermetically, and keep it in horse dung for four months at a continuous heat, which heat do not allow to slacken. Having done this, then, in the winter season, when the frost and cold are excessive, let it be exposed to them for a month, that it may be frozen. In this way, the cold thrusts the spirit of the wine, together with its substance, into the centre of the wine and separates it from the phlegm. Throw away that which is frozen, but that which is not frozen you must consider to be the spirit with the substance. Having placed this in a pelican with a digestion of sand, not too hot, let it remain there for some time. Afterwards take out the magistery of the wine, concerning which we have spoken. As to those additional processes which are in existence, and are put in practice, we will speak clearly when we shall treat of elixirs. Coming to an end here, we will ignore some of those other processes concerning wine which have little attraction for us.

Concerning the Extraction of the Magistery out of Blood. We wish also to unfold our opinion concerning the blood, in which there are very many and wonderful virtues, exceeding belief, but still sufficiently evident, chiefly on this account, that the blood exists out of the best root and most potent fountain of the heart, as we make clear in the treatise on The Composition of Man.* In this exists, and can exist, no defect, for it has its conditions according to the nature of the heart, and is a costly treasure of the whole nature, with all that is therein. Here someone may urge that the blood, when it has flowed out of the veins, will be soon deprived, by the nature of the case, of those virtues which renew and sustain that blood. But this is not so ; for it can be preserved in the essence, as we shall point out below. Let us, therefore, consider the small number of men who live with healthy body and blood. Wherefore, care must be taken that men of this kind be brought to a renewed quality and essence by arcana and the quintessence, as we have before mentioned, so that the blood may flow from them incorrupt and healthy. Nor do we speak of man's blood only, but also of the blood of the sperm, which we describe in our secrets, in which blood there is no disease or alteration, but the most wonderful blood of the human sperm, which we intend to take in this place, and this for many causes not here set forth.

We speak also of the blood of bread, which is to be taken for the same use and in the same way. For there are in it such virtues as we are scarcely able to scrutinise thoroughly, nor do we undertake the task of doing so to the full. In the same way it may be understood of other nutriments and comestibles, in all of which blood is present, although we do not see it in them any more than in bread ; yet, nevertheless, by putrefaction, as in the stomach and the liver, it becomes blood. So also every condiment which is taken therewith is changed after the same fashion as in the body. We are unwilling to write of this blood more largely or at

* The Liber de Gencratione Homiiiis, to which allusion is apparently made, exists only in the form of a fragment, and is concerned chiefly with the seminal philosophy ol Paracelsus. greater length, especially for the reason that we cannot make the subject agreeable to any but ourselves. We determine, therefore, to take rest in sleep, and then, waking from our pleasant slumber, we will go on to speak further about this blood. Let each thing prevail so far as it can by its own virtues, and according to what it has in it : for out of a good thing much good proceeds, and this always stands forth for our consideration. Nor shall we speak only of the blood of edible things, but also of potable things, which exhibit simply blood to our body. There can also be extracted from blood quintessences as well as arcana ; but of these former here we make no mention, having set before us to treat only of magisteries and to comprise each in this one : Take blood, shut it up in a pelican, and suffer it to rise up so long in a venter equinus until the third part of the pelican shall be filled. For all blood in its rectification is dilated according to the quantity, and not according to the weight. When this time is fulfilled you must rectify it by a bath. In this way the phlegms recede, and the raagistery remains at the bottom. Having shut this up in a retort, and hermetically sealed it, distil it nine times, as we have taught in the book, " Concerning Preparations." In this way you will arrive at the magistery of blood.*

* The treatise Concerning Preparations makes no reference whatever to the extraction of a magistery from blood. The End of the Sixth Book of the Archidoxies from the Theofhrastia concerning Magisteries.

From the Theophrastia of Paracelsus the Great. IT remains, now, that we speak also concerning specifics, in which reside many marvellous and great virtues, which do not derive their origin from Nature, so far as they are warm or cold ; but besides these qualities they have one nature and essence, as we have mentioned in several places. Such a specific takes its nature from externals, as when a piece of wood is thrown into the fire and is burnt ; that burning is not part of its peculiar nature, but the being wood is. Specifics, therefore, are produced from a conjunction, as when mastick and colophonia are blended, an attractive substance is generated, which is neither of these ; or, when terebinth is coagulated, a stone is produced therefrom which attracts iron to itself like the magnet. There are kindred substances which have such virtues, but from their compositions and from without. Ellebore, too, is compounded from the liquid of stone and earth. From the composition of these two a specific proceeds. So the oil of cherries and acetum after their digestion produce a laxative, though neither of them in its own nature has a laxative property. Wherefore, such specifics are produced out of their own nature by composition of elements and of the proper nature, just as tincture or colour, which is not derived from cold and heat, but from composition, as galls with vitriol produce ink, though neither the one nor the other is black by nature.

So, also, sal ammoniac and urine produce a black colour, when both of them are white. It is after the same manner with specifics. They have their origin from externals ; but some things which assume such virtues from without may exist in any herb, not in any one kind only, which must be understood in the following way. Wherever the magnet has grown, there a certain attractive power exists, just as colocynth is purgative and the poppy is anodyne. This arises from the composition which exists in them. Hence it is that every magnet is attractive and all colocynth is purgative, But such is not the case with specifics from without, of which the condition is as follows : if one flint has the virtues of a magnet, and another like it has not such virtues, this latter would be an external specific.

But it seldom happens that a peculiar condition is found in one herb and not likewise in another which is similar to it. Then, again, though many similar specifics arise from influences, nevertheless, we will not here discuss at length whether they arise from the same influences or not. We prefer to reserve this discussion for its proper place in our Physics, and to pass it over here. Moreover, many specifics are found — the odoriferous ones, to wit — which derive their origin from composition and digestion, as water of vitriol with sal ammoniac possesses the odour of musk, though neither of the constituents has this by itself. There are many such, which become odoriferous when they were not so before, and acquire a notable fragrance, like a rose or a lily, though they had no odour before, yet by labour, by digestion,- and separation, this fragrance is eventually aroused. In like manner, cow-dung is a foetid excrement, but if it be elevated, it acquires the odour of ambergris, while the residuum which is left at the bottom smells worse than human fasces. There are some diaphoretic specifics, producing sweat, which acquire a similar virtue by composition, as a burning coal placed on fat earth emits a vapour. So ginger placed on a bodj' burns, and is extinguished like lime when water is poured on it.

This heat accrues to the ginger from the sharpness or asperity which it contains within it, and with a warm element it is coagulated like a stone, which, when placed in the fire, is brought to the same degree of heat. Indeed, every diaphoretic is a calx of the liquid of the earth, as we state in our treatise on Generations. In like manner, purgatives themselves come from composition, as in the case of rhubarb, which is also the calx of a liquid, with a certain diflFerence intervening : for as a Tartarus draught it is resolved into water, and has with it some liquid in itself when it is put in a damp place ; so also rhubarb and other purgatives have a manifold origin, as being a calx of the earth. Some remove the cholera, as rhubarb which is like calcined tartar. Some take away phlegm, as Turbith— so written because the word was wanting in the autograph. With these realgar is dissolved, but nothing else. Others cure melancholy, Hke senna, which is to be understood after the manner of nitre, which resolves stones as nothing else does. Some act on the blood, as manna, which, like arsenic, resolves sublimates. Thus we must judge concerning the difference of these substances, seeing they are divided one from the other as we have mentioned. Some which are strengthening are derived from composition, as sperm lacking strength, from which, nevertheless, a glandule is produced according to its predestination. So then the strengthening specific is a certain predestinated body by the predestination of its composition. But the carline, which is not produced in this way, attracts to itself the virtues of other herbs, and takes away their strength, which it then possesses solely, just as the sun attracts to itself the moisture from wood, as we declare more at length in the treatise on Generations.

In like manner, also, some mundificatives acquire that virtue by composition, as when the calx of the earth is transmuted into another form by liquid, as resin, honey, gums, pitch, etc. Similar alterations exist in the flowers of Venus which at first are a purgative, as should be the case with a The Archidoxies of Theophrastus Paracelsus. 6i calx. Afterwards they are reduced by fire into a styptic, so that they lose their purgative properties and have a mundificative eflfect. It is the same with corrosives which are salts, and sometimes calcined in earth, sometimes substantiated (if one may so say) into one matter, as we set it down in the book on the Different Species of Salts. Many and various are the properties of this kind in things, which we handle in our treatise on The Properties of Things, and about which we have said sufficient here. Also why some are hard and others, on the contrary, soft, this we are unwilling to disclose here. Our Archidoxies do not treat of the whole principle, but only the special subject of compounding specifics and bringing them to the highest grade of Nature. With these we will now deal in due order, putting forward our own experience of them, and leaving behind those crooked haranguers who talk about God and understand nothing but hypocritical rites and similar fables, who also are the enemies of such as practise these arts and arcana.

They are plunged in worldly glory, romancing and cavilling through their capacity for much speaking. At it they go with both shoulders (as folks say) ; they flatter and pride themselves upon being wise, when they are only stupid and fatuous, and for filthy lucre's sake they befool their fellow men. Now, then, let us go on to treat concerning specifics according to our usual custom, and leave those University doctors, who only read and think — be their success what it may — to gnash their teeth against us if they will.

Concerning the Odoriferous Specific. Now, then, let us speak of odoriferous specifics, in what way and in what form they are produced. And, first, as concerns their powers. An odoriferous specific is a matter which takes away diseases from patients, just as civet destroys ordure, with its odour. This specific mingles itself with the foul smell of the ordure ; and the smell of the filth can no longer hurt or remain. The stench is tinged with fragrance, so that the good odour is as strong as the bad one was before. Since there is nothing which can take away the good odour from civet or musk, it is transmuted, as we prove in many passages. Hence it happens that occasionally some of the excrement is mingled with the musk, because this penetrates more readily than any lily with all its operations. It is well known that more of bad odour than of good is met with ; for as tyrus is taken in theriaca in order to penetrate all the limbs at once with another influence, so, in our opinion, does the odoriferous specific act. By means of the odoriferous specifics diseases are cured in persons who cannot take medicines, as in cases of apoplexy and of epilepsy. Many odours exist which relieve the epileptic ; and many, too, which aid the apoplectic. They may not cure them, but they pave the way for a cure. A force of this kind, brought to bear on the body, immediately stirs up the blood, and by forcing this to the heart, revives it to an indescribable degree. We will therefore prescribe an odoriferous specific which shall

serve as a foundation for compounding such specifics against all diseases. The process is as follows : — Take of white lilies, anthos, basilicon (carbon), cardamum, and roses, one handful respectively, with two handfuls of spike. Pound into a coarse paste. Add two quarts of the juice of oranges. Let all these be digested in a pelican for the space of one month. Afterwards separate them from their dregs with the hand, or, what is still better, with a press. Put this again in a pelican, and add one ounce each of mace, caryophylli, and cinnamon ; half an ounce of ambergris, two ounces of musk, and one ounce of civet. Having ground these very minutely, put them in the aforesaid pelican, and digest them in dung with the other ingredients. Then add half an ounce of gum arable in solution, also one ounce of similarly dissolved tragacanth. Place these in a closed glass vessel and indurate them with the clear part from white of eggs. You will presently see the mixture assume the form of glass. Break the vessel, take out the stone, and you will have the odoriferous specific, concerning which enough has now been written. It would, however, be well to add to it aurum potabile.

Concerning the Anodyne Specific. Many causes combine to induce us to write about this anodyne specific. There are some diseases in which all arcana fail us, with the exception of this anodyne specific, which works wonders. Nor need we be surprised at this, when we see water extinguish fire. Just in the same way the anodyne specific extinguishes diseases. There are many reasons why it does this, but we pass them over in silence. That which rests or sleeps does not, in the course of nature, cause any discomfort. A paroxysm, if it sleeps, is not felt ; if it does not sleep, its operation is accomplished. We console ourselves with the reflection that many anxious cares and cases of melancholia are removed by simply sleeping. And note this : Sleep does not necessarily apply to the sufferer only, but may be predicated of the disease itself. We, therefore, compound a specific . which operates on the disease alone, not on the entire patient, as is the case in those applied to fevers. What we put forward would be deadly to the whole man, but is salutary in its application to the disease. We attack the disease itself, and so elaborate our remedy that the ailment shall have, or can have, positively no effect on the body. The following is the formula : Take of Thebaic opium, one ounce ; of orange and lemon juice, six ounces ; of cinnamon and caryophylli, each half an ounce.

Pound all these ingredients carefully together, mix them well, and place them in a glass vessel with its blind covering. Let them be digested in the sun or in dung for a month, and then afterwards pressed out and placed again in the vessel with the following : Half a scruple of musk, four scruples of ambergris, half an ounce of crocus, and one and a half scruple each of the juice of corals and of the magistery of pearls. Mix these, and, after digesting all for a month.

add a scruple and a half of the quintessence of gold. When this is mixed with the rest it will be an anodyne specific, capable of removing any diseases, internal or external, so that no member of the body shall be further affected. Concerning the Diaphoretic Specific. Let us now speak of the diaphoretic specific, whereby every disease is cured which can or should, from its nature and properties, be treated by sudorifics. Such a disease is removed barely better than by any medicament. By means of the diaphoretic, a cold disease grows warm, and is removed by that heat. It has often happened to us that a cassatum of twenty years' standing has been cured by the diaphoretic ; and other diseases which they call intercutaneous, or which have their seat in the marrow. On these the quintessence has no effect, and still less the strengthening arcanum ; principally for this reason, that there is not sufficient strength in the heart to drive away the cassatum unless this be done by the diaphoretic alone. As the sun warms a frozen stone, and liquefies the hardest ice, just in the same way the diaphoretic exerts its powers on a disease which can be overcome by no other power, however excellent and good. Now, although the flammula be a very warm herb, still its heat cannot be compared in the faintest degree with that of the sun ; and so these same warm diaphoretics diff'er one from the other.

Wherefore we put forward at this point a specific which, as it were, summarises the diaphoretic properties. Take one pound of ginger, half an ounce each of long pepper and of black pepper, three drams of cardamum, and one ounce of grains of paradise. Let these be ground to powder, and placed in a glass vessel with an ounce and a half of best powdered camphor and two ounces of dissolving water. Let this mixture remain in a sealed glass vessel in sand so long until its digestion is completed. Then separate therefrom the dissolving water, let it putrefy for one month, and circulate it for one week. Afterwards press and keep it. This is the best and most powerful diaphoretic, acting more vehemently than could be believed both in cassatum and in other diseases. Enough on this point.

Concerning the Purgative Specific. We must also describe the purgative specific. And although we shall have to consider its complexions and the like, still we base our remarks on a more solid foundation, and accept only those specifics which exhibit not one disease or another, but all diseases. Hence it is gathered that whatever in the case of cholera is superfluous, and of no moment, is removed by this specific. Similarly also in cases where the symptoms show the phlegm or the blood at fault, or in melancholia, as also in abscesses and other affections which cannot be cured by mere complexions, nor be resolved by purgatives, as is the case with many diseases. Our endeavour is solely to remove the peccant matter, whether it be corrupt or not, whether in the form of an abscess, or in complexion, or arising from any admixture. Paying no heed to the prolix and useless discourses of the University doctors, we give our thought simply to sanitation, and, with this end in view, we shall build up our medicaments. Of such a nature, for example, is tartar, which, by its nature and properties, takes away all putrefactions and is not inclined to cholera, to melancholy, to phlegma, nor to the blood, but expels all that is useless from the body, or that can do harm to it. In like manner, vitriol purges every complication from which diseases arise. Coloquinth does not drive out all cholera or purge what arises therefrom ;

nor does rhubarb effect this. Neither does turbith arrest or evacuate all that proceeds from phlegma. Neither does lapis lazuli remove the impediments produced by melancholia, or manna drive out all bad blood ; but these two, besides other of our purgative specifics which we do not mention here, accomplish this, principally in all those putrefactions and superfluous faeces of the body, whencesoever they arise, just as water washes linen rags, and soap clears them from all defilement and impediments of any kind. So also do these act singly on single diseases. Let us then lay down a specific drug which, to our thinking, acts thus in the way just described. Take the magistery of tartar and the magistery of vitriol, mix them together, and afterwards add equal parts of the quintessence of crocus. Put them in a pelican, let them be digested for a month in sand, and let the drug of which I have spoken be carefully preserved. Concerning the other things necessary for this, greater intelligence exists among the erudite than among the ignorant.

And not only human beings may in this way be purged of their diseases and superfluities, but also trees and herbs. For in growing things, just as in persons, infirmities prevail, and their remedies, too, have grown, as we remark elsewhere. The magistery of vitriol heals the defects of anthos, when it cannot vegetate perfectly, and causes it to grow excellently, as we state in our work on Plants.* With these few words, therefore, we now conclude this subject. Concerning the Attractive Specific. Before we begin to speak of the attractive specific, it should be known that this attractive specific draws to itself everything that is superfluous in the body, and leads out whatever evil may adhere to it. This frequently happens ; and the result is proved to demonstration. Some attractive specifics are so adapted to the flesh that they attract to themselves a hundred pounds of flesh, just as a magnet attracts iron. It has happened in our time that an attractive of this kind has drawn a man's lungs into his mouth and so suffocated him. It has also occurred that, in another case, the pupil of the eye was drawn from its position right down to the nose and could never be removed thence. Attractives are found to act not only on

* The Herliarius Theo/'hrasti contains no reference to the subject, and selections have already been made from that chapter in De Nattt*'alibjis Rebits which is devoted to vitriol, iron, but also on wood, herbs, flesh, and water. We have seen a plaster which attracted so much water that a vessel could be filled from it, and the water ran down from that plaster just as from the roof of a house. In the same way, lead, tin, copper, silver, and gold can be drawn by the composition of attractives. By these same attractives, too, the branches may be torn from trees, a cow lifted into the air, and many other effects produced, which we have detailed in our secret writings as a Thesaurus ; so that we may admire and venerate that man alone who has brought it about by his art that so many discoveries should be made ; demonstrating as we do these incredible operations which so far excel Nature as it is constituted in itself. We will, then, lay down certain attractive virtues for the body, whereby what is evil and corrupt may be extracted from it and separated from what is good, so that the attractive may be applied on an emunctory to the particular spot where any defect has shewn itself,. as on an ulcer which may be taken on an emunctory, or if a glandular swelling has arisen this must first be opened like an emunctory.

We know from experience that by means of an attractive of this kind the pestilence has been extracted in a way that it would not become us to describe here. When this medicament has been used, no sick person has ever perished, however severe the disease with which he was aff"ected. The following is the recipe for the attractive specific : Take of the quintessence of all gums of every kind one quart, a pint of the magistery of the magnet, one pound of the element of carabis igneus, of the element of mastix tgneus and of myrrh, each three pints, and ten ounces of the element of scammony. Of these make an ointment with wax, gum, tragacanth, and turpentine, using it as directed above.

Concerning the Styptic Specific. We now have to speak of the styptic specific, the virtues whereof are very great, more so even than the others. When people see with their own eyes so many wonderful works of Nature, they urge us, in their delight, not to desist from them, but to tax our memory so as to impart what is offered by these arts of ours. And if, perchance, something was discovered by the old physicians and philosophers (which we deem by no means certain), that does not disturb us in any way, since all those things they wrote about were mere blind gropings. We delight in that great Nature which presents itself to our hands, and we rightly pass by the works of these ancients whom we esteem to have been blind, as we mention in many places. Is it not subject for wonder that styptics are so strong and possess a power in their quintessences, arcana, and mysteries, whereby two fragments of iron are so fastened together that afterwards they can only be separated by fire ? What is still more remarkable is, that one piece of copper can be so joined to another by similar styptics that they can no more be disjoined either by fire or by water. By a like attractive styptic a heap of stones can be conglutinated into a mass like a rock. In like VOL, II. F

manner, sand and lime, by means of such styptics, are welded together in perpetual compaction harder than marble. So far we speak of hard material. Let us go on to other kinds. By the same method we have seen leaves joined together so that they were taken for one concrete natural growth ; for instance, the leaf of the lily with the leaf of the rose in one combination. Blacksmiths, acting on my advice, have made their weldings as compact as though they had been originally one solid mass. We have seen, too, by means of these styptic specifics, the lips of a person so firmly drawn together on a single washing, that afterwards they could only be separated forcibly by instruments, the blood flowing freely in the process. Some persons, too, for a joke, closed up another's anus with these styptics so firmly, that when it was necessary to go to stool it had to be opened with a gimlet ! So, too, in the case of wounds and in rupture of the bladder, we have seen the compaction made so eff'ectually that no opening occurred in our time or during the life of the patients. Whatever limb this styptic material touched, it so contracted the orifice or the bare flesh that it could only be made smooth with a file. No water softens the force of such styptics, which is really much greater than we have described. So far, however, as relates to medicine, we will detail the styptic specific as follows :

— Take quintessence of bolus, that is to say, of iron, and the quintessence of carabis, otherwise called cathebes, one pound of each. Let these be digested in ashes for a month, and afterwards put in a pound and a half of dried tartar. Keep this body until required. This and similar styptics are inscrutable in their own bodies, but when employed on separate substances, they attract in an incredible manner, through the nature and condition of their great dryness. So, then, these styptic specifics may be called styptic beyond all others.

Concerning the Corrosive Specifics. We would now describe in addition the corrosive specific, wherein marvellous powers are naturally present. It has this wonderful property, as compared with the old corrosives, that it completely annihilates metals, so that no body is any longer found in them, just as wood disappears in the fire. It is true that the consumption of metals is brought about by aqua fortis, but still some part of their bulk remains undiminished and unchanged in its essential nature, so that it can be once more brought back by means of fire to its original body and matter. But this is not the case after consumption brought about by the corrosive specific, and for this reason : because no matter is any longer found in this case which can by any means be brought back to a metallic nature, any more than ashes can be again turned to wood. It should be known, too, that this corrosive acts upon flesh in a way to which nothing else is comparable. Its velocity in one moment penetrates the hand like an awl. Now, we recount this in the interest of medicine, with the following end in view. In the body a good deal of putrid superfluous flesh grows up, in the way of ulcers, like fistulas, scrofulous cancers, etc., all of which can be cured

by corrosives of this kind. In this specific a styptic virtue exists of very great power, by which it acquires special curative faculties. It might- really be called rather a fire than a medicament, seeing that it consumes iron chains and bars in a way beyond belief or power of description. We give the recipe for it as briefly as possible : Take one pound of aqua fortis rectified from its caput mortuum, half a quart of sublimated mercury, two ounces of sal ammoniac. Mix all these and let them be consumed ; then add an equal weight of mercurial water. No adamant can resist this corrosive. Although the same is understood concerning the quintessence and the arcanum, namely, that the skin may be taken away by either mode of cautery, and new skin superinduced in its place, as in leprosy, morphea, serpigo, lentigo, pannus, etc., against all these this corrosive specific comes into use; but we omit it on account of its violent action. We choose in preference this mixture, with which the skin should be washed, when it falls off and is laid bare. Afterwards it can be consolidated in due course. The mixture should be as follows :^Take one pound of the juice of the flammula, four and a half of cantharides, and 5 ij. of the Ignis Gehenna aforesaid. Mix and use as above.

Concerning the Specific of the Matrix. One would speak of the specific of the matrix for several reasons, specially on account of the affections to which it is liable. But in this place we hesitate to treat of those substances which warm or refrigerate it, since these results can be brought about by magisteries and arcana. Here, however, we set down two specifics, one for suff^ocation of the matrix, the other for promoting or restraining the menses. Suffocation can only be remedied by the specific, though not elementated or prepared for this object, but in its common form or essence, adapted to the said purpose even as the skin of the fig is. As soon as ever its fume enters by the vulva the disease is expelled. And this is chiefly remarkable on account of its being such a cheap simple ; and though it be prepared, the essence of its fume, wherein lies its sole virtue, is not lost. For promoting the menstrual discharge the method is the spleen of a castrated ox reduced to a magistery or quintessence. This is an admirable provocative not only in young, but in old, women. As to restriction, the best method is to use the quintessence of coral, the oil of iron, or ferrum potabile, which restricts more than anything else.* There is no need to describe the properties at greater length, since this would be too prolix for our Archidoxies. It should be remarked that, under the abovementioned compositions, that is to say, the incarnatives, the conglutinates, and the specifics, are comprised laxatives, mundificatives, and the like, under purgations themselves ; and so with others, as the deoppilatives under

» By this oil of iron every genus of humid, fluid, and flaccid ulcers, those also which have swollen and ruddy lips, are completely cured, and the older and more deeply rooted the ulcer is, so is the remedy more ready and easy.— /?« Tuworihus^ etc., Morhi Gallici^ Lih. X. purgatives and attractives. Here we would conclude our book on Specifics, as an aid to memory, lest we forget them. In like manner the confortatives are also recounted in single chapters. The End of the Seventh Book of the Archidoxies from the Theophrastia OF Paracelsus the Great concerning Specifics.

From the Theophrastia of Paracelsus the Great. AFTER many of the most secret mysteries of Nature, we desire to treat compendiously of Elixirs ; and that not in vain, since we see that there is latent in them the chief conservation, which compels us to bend our mind thereto without any rest.* For every elixir is an inward preservative in its essence of that body which shall have taken it, even as the extrinsical balsam is an external preservative of all bodies from putrefaction and corruption, a fact which is evident enough in balsam, that is to say, it preserves bodies so that they abide many hundreds and thousands of years without corruption or change, t When, therefore, we see a gift like this in balsam, which preserves dead bodies and keeps them in incorruptibility, it is to be understood equally that by this same gift, or mystery, the sound and living body can be far better, more usefully, and more conveniently preserved. But we have not this naturally that these mysteries of Nature and those constituted above Nature, by which we may preserve the body inwardly and outwardly from all contrariety, should be known to us ; but among them many things meet us which are most occult.

Concerning elixirs, then, it should be known that these have not their operations from Nature, nor from their complexion, but that they are mysteries rather than specifics, leading us to the very highest admiration of the Creator by many demonstrations. Yet they are implanted in Nature herself, so that they are in her, as is seen in the case of balsam. If, therefore, it be possible to preserve dead bodies, still more so living bodies themselves can be preserved. And there is no reason why we should heed the words or arguments of our adversaries, but rather it is well that we should disclose our own, by which means we desire to guide towards the true foundation of the internal balsam, not heeding their triflings and their useless words who talk of a limit * The Scholia in Libros Paragrapliorum deline the elixir as a ferment, a quintessence, the pure substance separated from the impure. t Of balsam in general, Paracelsus says that it is a temperate thing, neither sweet nor bitter, nor pontic ; it is a liquor of salt and a salt of liquor. Therefore it most powerfully preserves from putrefaction. - De Tartaro^ Tract. IV., c. 2.

of death and of its predestination, and close it in with determinate points. For God our Father gives us life, and along with it medicaments by which we are able to defend and sustain it. If, therefore, the limit of death were laid down at a precise point, it would of necessity follow that this other theory should be false, which is not the case ; but as long as we have power and knowledge, we possess the capacity of sustaining our life. For Adam attained to such an advanced period of life not from the nature or condition of his own properties, but simply from this reason, that he was so learned and wise a physician, who knew all things in Nature herself with which he sustained himself during so long a period. And there were many others, in like manner, who used similar remedies. There were in the days of Adam many who died without reaching his age, and some did not even attain our limit, as we are now constituted since the Deluge ; and these died just as we die, because they were unskilled in those arts which Adam and others understood ; and hence it happened that they were deprived of life before their due time, nor did their foods or drinks help them.

Since, therefore, we are enabled from such examples as these to discover naturally that a protracted life proceeds from Nature, we desire to investigate what it is in which Nature and the gift of God consist. Some things preserve a dead body from putrefaction for one year only, as the oleum laterinum. Others preserve it for ten years, as the corrected oil of the philosophers. Some preserve it for twenty, as the water of honey. Some for fifty, as the distilled preservative. But some preserve it for ever without end, asbalsam. Some preserve it only for eight days, as salt ; others for a night, as distilled water. Some preserve it longer, as vinum ardens. There are also some others which preserve the body from corruption in a new and strong essence of Nature when a man is confirmed by them, as aloes, citrine, and myrrh. Some preserve bodies from corruption only by their great tincture, which is so powerful that it admits no evil, nor suffers it to grow or to enter secretly, as gold, the sapphire, pearls, arcana, magisteries, and the like, as has been before written about these. We purpose, therefore, to describe a preservative against all corruptions of the living and the dead body. But it is considered that a preservative of the living body must be taken at the mouth, so that there may be no member of the body which does not receive that same preservation, or which may not be informed by attracting to itself the benefit thereof.

Moreover, it must be remarked that the spirits of the excrements existing in the bowels are so strong that they fight against a preservative, for this reason, that nothing which is putrefied can be embalmed or preserved, for it has not in itself any essence as recently dead flesh which is embalmed has. But this agrees with a preservative none otherwise than as worms do with the best herbs, and as a putrefied substance does with one that is incorruptible ; since whatever is putrefied cannot be further corrupted or be changed, since there is no move-

ment in it. On the other hand, a preservative cannot in any way be putrefied, for it is like gold, which never rusts. They are mutually separated one from the other, so that each fulfils its own proper function. This, therefore, is said, because, in lapse of time, the excrements are able to overcome the preservatives ; but this cannot occur in dead bodies, because they are disembowelled, or, if not yet disembowelled, they are coagulated by death, just as the blood withdrawing from the veins coagulates. We call this preservative an elixir, as if it were yeast, with which bread is fermented and digested by the body. Its virtue is to preserve the body in that state wherein it finds it, and in that same vigour and essence. Since this is the nature of preservatives, namely, that they defend from corruption, not in any way by purifying, but simply by preserving. The fact that they also take away diseases is due to the subtlety which they possess. So, then, they do not only preserve, but they also conserve. They have a double labour and duty, that is to say, to prevent diseases and to keep the essence itself in its proper condition.

Nor do they do this in human bodies only, but in all bodies possessed of sensation. Thus, also, dead wood can be preserved from corruption, just as any body that is treated with balsam. Herbs, too, can be preserved in their essence none otherwise than a living body can : since those conservations which apply to herbs keep them in the same essence as that wherein they find them, so that they flourish and remain as fresh as in the fields and gardens, or elsewhere, to the fifth or sixth day. If they find them with flowers, they preserve these ; if with fruits, these also. Nor wonder at this, when it is possible for dead wood to live again, and for iron to be so fixed that it shall never rust again, and likewise for sulphur to be made incombustible, all which things are beyond the understanding of a simple man. The cause of all these things we set down more broadly and fundamentally in the treatise on Conservations. Nor must they be considered impossible, since many other things which are deemed impossible can be most easily accomplished. We wish, then, to speak of the conservation of balsam by the distinctions of ages in the following manner.

On Preservai ion and Conservation by Elixirs. We purpose to write of the first elixir, which conserves the body in that essence where it finds it, and does not suffer it to putrefy or grow weak, but conserves it in the spirit of life, so that no accident can happen to it. It also brings it to a third period of life, or to more. As to its use, the operation on dead bodies diff'ers from that on the living, since the dead must lie in the balsam nights and days, but the living and healthy bodies neither can nor need do this. Wherefore, this elixir must be understood to be of use only for life, and for the heart and those parts especially in which the life chiefly flourishes, that is, the spirit of life dispersed throughout the entire body. And it preserves the spirit of life in that virtue wherein a dead body or corpse is kept from putrefaction ; because, if a wound or an ulcer may be externally preserved from putrefaction and from every mishap, so, also the inner body is arranged so as to be defended from all adversity. Wherefore, we arrange the elixir which is directed to the spirit of life none otherwise than as yeast operates in paste ; and with reference to the body, as when a tree is tinged in its root, so that the same colour may never withdraw from it. In this way the whole body is preserved, when the tincture is more or less scattered amongst all the members and penetrates them none otherwis'e than as the whole metal is tinged into gold, and becomes gold, or is preserved from rust. So, also, is it in the conserved body ; there is no member comprised in it which is not full of the elixir.

After that, being dispersed throughout the whole body, it shall have acquired its virtue, and already is exercising its operation by itself, no corruption can happen to it by contact, because the life of every member is full of the elixir as the body is tinged with the balsam. But it should be understood that it is not necessary the whole body should be affected with the balsam by means of the elixir which has been taken ; for where the spirit of life has only been surrounded therewith at its root, this suffices for the conservation of the body. Now we must come to the practical method ; and first of all treat concerning the elixir, which by the conditions of the powers of balsam preserves the whole body from decay. Then concerning that which preserves the body by the potential power of salt. Thirdly, concerning the elixir of sweetness, which supports the body in its conservation. Fourthly, we will treat of the elixir which enters the human body by the powers of a quintessence. Fifthly, another shall be appended which is truly noble by the force of its great subtlety : for it resists all the enemies of Nature, by which resistance it never suffers the body to fall into disease. In place of a conclusion, we will add that elixir which, by the forces of its own proper nature, is endowed with similar conservations.

Concerning the First Elixir, that is, of Balsam. Take of the true and very best balsam, well known to us, one pound. Let this be put into a glass covered with a blind alembic, and together with it pour in two ounces of the quintessence of gold and one ounce and a half of the essence of the greater circulatum. Let all these be digested together with a slow fire, so that the vapours may ascend night and day. Afterwards let the fire be increased so that some drops may adhere, and may fall down, drop by drop, for two months. At length let them remain in horse dung for four months, so that they may have their digestion without intermission. When this has been done the elixir is finished. It must be understood that this balsam or elixir becomes a fermentation which is developed and mingled with the root of life, and has the power of ruling the life in a good essence, so that no nature can resist it. None otherwise than as arsenic overcomes Nature for evil does this elixir, on the other hand, overcome it for good, defending the body. The dead body is kept safe by this odour so that it cannot putrefy when it is put in the tomb, and is covered up so that it may not evaporate. Much more do its own virtues remain in a living body, which we hope to have sufficiently explained in this place.

Concerning the Elixir of Salt, by the force of which the body is conserved. There is no less power and virtue in salt than in balsam, whereof we have spoken ; for this reason, that flesh is preserved from putrefaction by salt for days, years, and long periods ; and that in different ways, and one way more than another. On the same basis it would be possible to conserve and to preserve the body ; not because we mean to use salt in the precise way as with dead flesh, but from it should be compounded the elixir of salt, which penetrates materially the spirit of life, so that it lives by the salt as salted flesh does. For this elixir is so 'subtle that it can be brought to bear on the spirit of life. Thus these two meet closely in one conjunction, so that the one is tempered by the other to perfection, just in the same way as salt perfects certain food in point of taste, without which it could scarcely in any other way be brought to perfection in respect of unity. And it must be remarked that the elixir of salt is a fermentation in which exists a certain tincture whereby the whole body is penetrated. It is also an inconsumable thing, which is not consumed in the body by digestion along with natural things, but is fixed as glass in the fire, which does not at all perish in the process.

This fixed elixir so fixes the body that it becomes permanent in life, none otherwise than as when a metal is fixed, in which case no damp afterwards, no corrosive, or anything of the kind, can injure it, or produce rust in it. So, then, it may be inferred from hence that the elixir is a fixed body, like gold, into which nothing impure can penetrate so as to hurt it. The practical preparation of this elixir of salt we will set down as follows : —

Take salt, prepared in the best possible way, very white and pure. Let this be placed in a pelican with so much dissolving water as may exceed six times its weight. Let them be digested together in horse dung for a month. Afterwards let the dissolving water be separated by distillation, and again poured on and separated as before. Let this be repeated until the salt is converted into an oil, to which let there be added an eighth part of the quintessence of gold. Let them be digested together in a pelican and in horse dung for four months, and afterwards circulated for a month. Let there be added another part of circulated wine ; and let them so remain in ascension for a month longer. When that time has elapsed you will have the elixir of salt, concerning which we have made for ourselves a memorial according to rule for the relief of our ancient days. Concerning the Third Elixir, namely, of Sweetness. We are certainly assured that bodies may be preserved from corruption by sweetnesses ; but by what forces this is done we set down in the books of the Generations of Honey,* Sugar, Manna,t Thronus, and the like ; and we are unwilling to repeat it in this place on account of the writings of the ancients. We are able to transmute sweets into an elixir, the preparation of which rather conserves the living body in its conserved essence than a languishing body.

For it is the property of all specific sweetnesses, that they are neither corrupted nor do they allow this to be corrupted, unless by contrary things they become liable to corruption, as out of honey and bread worms and ants are produced, as also out of sugar and thickened milk. Out of manna and water is produced a corruption like dung. Many more similar compositions may be made, by which the sweets pass into corruption. That this may be obviated, the following is our intention and experience, namely, that in this composition such a thing should be taken as will not prevent the sweetness from remaining in its proper essence, and such as may be without the corruption of other things. In this way, it has the virtues of a balsam for preserving the dead fleshly bodies of corpses or other things. A like sweetness is the balsam of the earth, and some others of the dew, because it derives its origin from them. Now, therefore, we will set down the elixir of thronus, since no sweetness can be compared therewith, and it contains more mysteries than could be believed, as we state in our treatise on Generations. By the preparation of this may be gathered the methods of preparing other sweetnesses. Let that of thronus be as follows :

Take as much thronus as you will, which place in a pelican, and set in the sun for digestion during two months, or, better still, for the whole summer. Afterwards let there be added a fourth part of the quintessence of gold, and so let them be circulated together for two months. Keep this. Although this method is short, nevertheless the elixir made by it is wonderful in the case of very aged persons. * In the description of the essence and property of honey, it must first of all be understood that the prime matter of honey is the sweetness of the earth which resides in naturally growing things, and is extracted out of the property of the same by magnets. Hence you ought to gather that in eveiy prime matter all that concerns growing things is collected, just as when several colours are combined one only appears though all are present. Similarly, also, the seed is the wood, the leaves, and the branches, not actually and in the present, but for the future, if it be brought forth and grow. So, also, in the prime matter of things there is a similar composite from which all growing things attract what they require. . . . Now ye must know that honey in its first matter is a resin of the earth, but resin is a gum not of all flowers and growing things, but of some only. Of some there is a resin produced, of others a sulphur and bitterness, and of yet others something else.

That which grows in flowers and locusts is conceived with the form and appearance of honey. It does not yet dwell in its ultimate matter, being perfected by the Sun and the Moon. These two planets, however, can bring nothing to its final perfection without all the assistance of a celestial operation, which in the case of plants, etc. , is the summer star. . . . Honey, therefore, is a terrene spirit at first, but if there be applied the influence of summer, it generates a corporal spirit, that is, the spirit which in the sun and moon was terrene becomes a coi-poral spirit. Bees can remove the same and take it away to their hives. This is the prime materialised matter, for honey and wax are one ; if they be separated like chalybs and iron, it is then called a separated corporal from a . materialised matter. For as the alchemists, in a circulatoiy or pelican, circulate the spirit of wine, so, also the summer star in natural growing things circulates liquid. So honey emerges from the earth into the materialised matter, which is the subject of the bees, and this materialised matter requires further perfecting. . . . There is a threefold kind of honey in all growing things - the lowest, middle, and topmost. It is the last which the bees seek, and they find it in the flowers, where it is purest, the gross being always relegated by Nature to the lowest place.— ZJ^J/^Z/f.

t Manna is the chiefest and most excellent nutriment and the marrow of locusts. It is the highe.st natural preparation of the star. The food of those bees that are fruitful in honey and wax is this manna and tereniabin. — Ihid, Concerning the Fourth Elixir, which is that of Quintessences. Similarly quintessences can be reduced to an elixir, which, like balsam, conserves living as well as dead bodies. In this place we make very slender mention thereof, because it has been previously demonstrated in the process of quintessences. So, then, advancing a little farther, we will set down such things as we are mindful of as making for preservation and conservation. Afterwards out of the elixirs of those processes we will teach the composition of one elixir equally profitable to the body as the three preceding. It must be understood that this elixir of quintessences has in it a secret virtue which daily tends to restoration, and endeavours to renovate and restore the whole body. So, then, it produces something more than a mere conservation ; for it also renovates, not, however, so perfectly as we have described above concerning quintessences and arcana, but with inferior force, because the conservation and the restoration of these cannot co-exist ; still, by this method renovation is disposed towards conservation, in the following way : —

Take the quintessence of chelidony and of balm, each two ounces ; of quintessence of gold and quintessence of mercury, each half an ounce ; of the quintessence of saffron and of all the mirobolanes, each one ounce. Let all be mixed together and remain in digestion of the sun, enclosed in a blind alembic, for two months. Afterwards add one ounce and a half each of the quintessence of wine and the magistery of the same, and let them be again digested as above for a month. Then keep it as a treasure, not only for preservation, but also for restoration. The Fifth Elixir is called that of Subtlety. Now, we have thought that we ought to set down something concerning the elixir of purity or of subtlety, which conserves by the force of its great purity, as is the case with the corrected oil of the philosophers. This suffers nothing which has been anointed with it to putrefy. The same effect is produced by the corrected laterine oil, and many others, whereof the property, however, is not to preserve from putrefaction, but they acquire this, and take it as their property, from the preparation and the labour bestowed, as distilled or corrected wine does not allow putrefaction any more than digested wine does, and this, moreover, is not changed by the fire.

The water of honey by its preparation resists putrefaction, so far as concerns sensible bodies ; though the crude substance thereof does not produce this effect, but is itself liable to putrefaction. Wherefore we set down an elixir of subtlety, since, just as mercury itself, which is volatile, is fixed and becomes permanent through its own water, so the human body also is fixed into consistency and permanence. Now, although this may be done by many other methods than that which we here describe, nevertheless, we mention only those which are experimentally known to ourselves. Not that on this account we wish to detract in any way from the others ; only we say that all these things have not yet come to our knowledge and experience. The process of this elixir is as follows : — Take olive oil, honey, and vinum ardens, one pound of each. Distil them all together after the manner of the alchemists, and do this thrice. Afterwards separate all the phlegm from the oils, which are distinguished by their many colours. Put all these oils into a pelican and add to them a third part of the quintessence of balm and of chelidony. Digest for a month. Afterwards keep it for use. No sensible or insensible body can resist it, on account of many causes and properties which we are unwilling to set down in this place.

The Sixth Elixir, which is that of Propriety. Equally from natural objects a perfect elixir can be extracted, as out of myrrh, saffron, and aloepatic. As to what forces it proceeds from, that we set down in our treatise on the Generations thereof. Here we only put forth the process, leaving the origin, which we often treat of elsewhere. Take of myrrh, of aloepaticus, and of saffron, each a quarter of a pound. Put these all together into a pelican, set them in sand, and let them ascend for a month. Then separate the oil from the dregs by means of an alembic without burning. This oil suffer to digest for a month, together with circulatum of equal weight. Afterwards preserve it. In this elixir are all the virtues of the natural balsam, and, moreover, such a conservative virtue for old persons, more than it seems right to assign to it. For not only one period of life seems to proceed from it, but four, seven, or ten. It is scarcely possible to express its force and natural powers, but, so far as our judgment goes, it has been sufficiently elucidated, nor do we think it requires fuller explanation. The End of the Eighth Book of the Archidoxies from the Theophrastia OF Theophrastus Paracelsus concerning Elixirs.

From the Theophrastia of Paracelsus the Great. IN the preceeding books we have treated of internal diseases. Now we have to write of those which arise without, and to set down remedies for the same. Although we insert nothing in these books as to the origin of diseases, internal or external, we will lay down the origins of the medicaments against them, and afterwards the composition of similar remedies for external ailments. Some refer only to wounds, and by these remedies a wound can be healed in twenty-four hours. This is to be understood in the following manner : — A wound that has been inflicted requires nothing else save that it be again connected or conjoined, just as two planks are connected with glue. You should on no account allow wounds to lie open, but should endeavour to refill them with flesh. This is a matter for the rustic rather than for the physician. Consider that when the lips of the wound are joined, as the planks by glue, they are more than half healed. What has to be done by some kind of medicament is to bring together each side as well and as closely as possible. Thence it follovirs that when the lips touch, and the compression of the medicament aids Nature, the cure is complete. So that no wound, in which no fracture of a limb is involved, can be so bad as not to be cured in twenty-four hours.

Bones cannot be connected in the same way as flesh can ; so in this place we do not speak of them. You can understand the matter by an example. When some limb is altogether cut through, before the veins are dead, and while they are still warm and fresh, let them, as soon as possible, be moistened with the medicament, the wound joined together and its two sides connected exactly like two sticks fastened together with glue. Thus they are healed and grow together. This the medicament effects, which Nature takes care of by its power of resiccation, and heals through that power whereof we have spoken above. But it should be understood that the medicament for wounds should not be incarnative, or mundificative, or attractive, because such medicaments draw out the putrid fluxes and cause much matter to be formed. Moreover, the opening or cavity of the wound has to be filled with flesh ; and this is done very slowly and, in consequence, with a good deal of peril, and without a magistery. This is also the case with oldstanding ulcers, which in course of time have become loaded with discharges,

whence it happens that they can only be cured with many accidents and much difficulty, indeed, sometimes can never be cured at all. Wherefore, there is urgent need of some medicament for them, such as we have mentioned, which also with a certain force compresses in like manner the skin and the cavities. In like manner, it must be remembered in the cure of ulcers that the formation of flesh is necessary, and this cannot be brought about by mere compression. As we said in the case of wounds, so in that of ulcers, fistulas, and the like, all these ailments have to be cured by the force of medicaments. We lay down, therefore, two fundamental rules for this flesh-forming— one being incarnative and the other exsiccative. And now to speak of other malformations of the skin, such as cicatrices, morphea, serpigines, pannus, spots, leprosy, etc., including all diseases arising from the skin. For these we prescribe the following method of treatment. First we ordain that all the skin shall be stripped off, just as the flesh is stripped from a calf. Afterwards a new skin must be induced by the proper medicament. It will be inferred that the skin must be removed by some medicament, and a new, pure, immaculate skin generated by some other in colour, like that which follows, so that not much of the flesh and the humour may be attracted thither ; and thus, as we have said, any spots are removed.

The origin of such removal we have not from the beginning mentioned here, because it has been treated of elsewhere, and it does neither good nor harm to our intention and to our present teaching. There are other diseases also, such as cancers, buboes, and the like, which require their special medicament to remove their origin, and to purge away all their impurities. This is best effected by the attractive specific. Then there is need of consolidation, as we show in our treatise on fistulas and the like.

Ruptures of the bones and the like can only be consolidated with an attractive styptic ; and this we need not discuss afresh, since we have spoken of it elsewhere. In like manner, many superfluous growths are found, as strumas, glandular swellings, etc., which ought first to be emptied and afterwards cured. We will, therefore, divide surgery into three parts or methods of cure : one referring to wounds, a second to ulcers, and a third to spots. Cancer we shall cure only with an attractive specific, and afterwards treat with those medicaments which we shall describe below. A Remedy for Wounds. If it be necessary to have such a medicament as by its special nature shall connect the lips of wounds, as glue joins two boards, this must be accomplished by its very great dryness and its styptic qualities, which act on the flesh only in the following manner. Take Samech which has been well burnt and calcined to whiteness. To this add a smaller quantity circulated. Afterwards distil, in order that a very dry caput mortuum may remain at the bottom, and that the whole glass may glow. Then pour in fresh matter again, as before, and do this until the circulated substance comes out quite sweet, as it is in itself. Then allow it to be resolved by itself.

That which is so resolved becomes a remedy for a wound ; in fact, it might be called " A Balsam for a Wound," because in our common German speech balsam is the same as Baldtzusammen, that is, mox co7ijunctiim (soon joined), and the term is not derived from the Latin idiom. We are unwilling to speak in detail as to the virtues of this medicament, but generally, we assert, it has such an effect on all wounds that with one single washing we have cured many hundreds of these in a manner which is not credible, judging by natural methods. A Remedy for Ulcer. Ulcers, it should be understood, must, in like manner, be compressed by a medicament with the addition of a generative virtue. The writings of the ancients are not worthy of our imitation ; they are malicious and wicked. What we have to consider may be expressed thus : " Compel them to come in ;" and we do it in the following way : Take of the aforesaid balsam for wounds, and of balsam similarly made from rust — of Samech, for instance— one pound each. Mix these together, and add a pound and a half of oil of iron. When all these ingredients are mixed together, let them be placed on the ulcers, which must be washed daily, as shall seem expedient. Let a consolidative plaster be applied such as we prescribe for ulcers. Follow up your ligatures thus to the end, until a cure is effected. It must be noticed that the members have to be compressed with these ligatures, as we have pointed out at sufficient length elsewhere. Let this suffice on the subject of ulcers.

A Remedy against Spots. We have sufficiently explained the removal of the skin by a corrosive specific, and together therewith the cautery — how it is to be produced and adapted for use. After the skin has been removed, and with it the spot, the cure is as follows : — Take the above-mentioned balsam for ulcers, and add to this washed turpentine, oil of worms., and oil of eggs, equal parts of each. With this wash all the flesh when it has been stripped of its skin. After this treatment nothing more is required. The property of such a medicament is that it induces a new colour along with the new skin, and a natural hardness, so that it can be no longer defaced by the previous spots. Although it is true that such spots can be removed by many waters, as for instance, the water of bean flowers, of sigillum Marise and the like, as well as by human dung, still these do not come within our scope, since their purpose is not uniformly compassed, and the spots are much more effectually removed by the method we have pointed out. Nor let any be surprised that we set down so few and such concise remedies for the whole range of surgery, and do not follow those surgical methods which the ancients have described and the moderns have adopted, like them, for their own uses. For by that method of medicine, so long as we followed it, we could never find or perceive anything well founded and certain. But we have used our own remedies according to our experience, and in this way we have found out the best medicaments in the whole of surgery, and have comprised them here in three paragraphs only.

And although, no doubt, other diseases can be found besides those which we have mentioned here, such as bullae, alopecia, etc., they are, nevertheless, comprised under spots and scars, and must be cured according to the treatment prescribed for them, for many causes which are not here brought forward, but left to our own experience ; we had not forgotten them. We have had hundreds and thousands of these wounds passing through our hands, and when we saw them cured so quickly and so effectually by these remedies, why should we imitate the tedious and empty processes of the ancients, forgetting those nearest to ourselves ? Why, then, we use mundificatives, lotions, sutures, ligatures, corrosives, and the like — which are all effectual against wounds, and destroy them most thoroughly — we have given the cause of all this at sufficient length in our book on wounds. Why do we use different plasters, ointments, unguents, and the like, even in the cure of ulcers ? Why ligations, anointings, and the like ? Well, to go through all this would be tedious since it only leads us to enter on a prolix, intricate, and foolish course, where we seek mere accidents without finding anything. It is a mere superstition to pin one's faith to antiquity. For in surgery to debate as to the nature of fistula, cancer, or ulcer, or the like, and then to assign to each its special remedy is mere vain talk and waste of writing, which will not repay the outlay in paper ; when all can be thoroughly cured and removed by one single remedy — as, for example, external leprosy, alopecia, serpigo, spots, and the like, pustules, the itch, and scars, which can all be thoroughly removed by one medicament and one method of practice, as can also artetic wounds by spears, weapons and bullets. With these few words we would close our treatise on surgery and bring it to an end.

The End of the Ninth Book of the Archidoxies from the Theophrastia concerning external wounds and their remedies.

THE TENTH BOOK OF THE ARCHIDOXIES,* From a German manuscript codex of great antiquity. WE had decided to write our Archidoxies, as also other books concerning Medicine, with especial clearness and lucidity, inasmuch as all the highest medical arcana cannot be prepared without true chemical encheiries (undertakings), nor yet can they be speedily exalted in grade, and it is notorious that almost the whole world, through its devotion to riches and earthly wealth, zealously pursues tinctures only and transmutations of metals in order to amass the greatest possible amount of gold and silver, to obtain which they stand in the greatest need of chemical preparations, which also they would like to find in concise form and easily in our Archidoxies. Notwithstanding, it was in consideration of the very great evil which might thence arise, and at the same time to oppose their malice, that we have concealed our doctrine, according to ancient philosophic method and cabalistic practice. I shew this, my doctrine, clearly to the upright and the perfect, yet leave it none the less dark to contemptuous and impious men. Our writing according to the method of cabalistic philosophy is not due only to the lachrymistae who gape after gold, but also to the majority of the

* The following editorial preface introduces the tenth book of the Archidoxies in the Geneva folio : — Behold, gentle reader, the tenth book of the Archidoxies, which has been long demanded by the wishes of all lovers of chemistry, but till now has not been included among the works of Paracelsus, because, being in the possession of few, it has been held among secret things, as a most precious treasure replete with great arcana. Once, indeed, it was printed in the vernacular tongue of the author at Mentz, but the envy of certain persons, who gazed with a fierce eye at the revelation of the mysteries therein revealed, suppressed the majority of the copies, and compelled very many persons, studious in chemistry and in the writings of Theophrastus, to make transcripts for themselves. We, in order to consult the public good, have thought proper to add to the nine books previously edited, this tenth book, rendered from German into Latin, by one who is skilful in both languages, so that those who are studious in this science may be saved from transcribing, and the number of the Archidoxies may be complete. The author has denied in several places of this work that he would write the said book, lest he cast pearls before swine, .and lest these arcana should gome to the knowledge of the unworthy and the impious, but he changed his mind at the persuasion and prayers of his ffiends, who impartially weighed the disadvantages of giving their mysteries to the public with the advantages which could be derived to the human race by their communication.

The latter seemed to preponderate by far ; consequently, they at last obtained this concession, that he would entrust the work to certain of his familar acquaintances. It appears from the preface, which he prefixed, with how great an oath he bound each and every person who should obtain an exemplar that he should guard it with the greatest secrecy as a treasure of Nature and Art, and should have nothing to do with avaricious chemists, or with the ambitious and envious followers of Galen. Nor did the author forbid the publication without a reason ; he rightly rejoiced in the title of a key, whereby the doors of the preceding books are opened, and the bars removed, so that