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

Agresta. a beverage made from apples or barberries. Paracelsus forbids it to be used by persons who are afflicted with diseases of a tartareous nature, for every acid is a resolved tartar produced out of a cold coagulate, or, otherwise, from the salts of a vitriolated minera combined with alums. Agresta is verjuice. Agaric is described as a medicine made from flies ; it destroys worms in the body, and acts as a tonic to the system in certain forms of plague. Agaricon is also a mushroom growing upon high trees ; it is of a white colour, and is good for purging phlegm. It was used anciently for tinder. Agrimony, called also liver-wort, once used in the preparation of a medicine which was held to be a valuable tonic. Agrippine Unguent, probably a prepararation of the Agrippum, a wild olive. Air. The philosophy of Paracelsus on this subject may be compared with that of other alchemists. For example, Eugenius Philalethes says that air is not an element, but a certain miraculous hermaphrodite, the cement of two worlds, and a medley of extremes. It is the sea of things invisible, and retains the species of all things whatsoever. It is also the envelope of the life of our sensitive spirit. The First Matter of the philosophers is compared to air because of its restlessness.

Alchemy. The following remarkable passage occurs in \hQ Anima Magica Abscondita of Thomas Vaughan. It has often been made use of as evidence that the adepts had a higher object than the transmutation of ordinary metals : — Question not those impostors who tell you of a svlphur tiiigens, and I know not what fables ; who pin also that narrow name of Chemia on a science both ancient and infinite. It is the Light only that can be truly multiplied, for this ascends to, and descends from, the first fountain of multiplication and generation. If to animals, it exalts animals ; if to vegetables, vegetables ; if to minerals, it refines minerals, and translates them from the worst to the best condition. Alchemy. The monk Ferarius defines it to be the science of the four elements, which are to be found in all created substances, but are not of the vulgar kind. The whole practice of the art is simply the conversion of these elements into one another. Alchimilla, a herb, otherwise called Lion's-foot. Alcohoph is possibly Sal Alacoph, ie., sal ammoniac. Algol. Some chemists have given this name to vinegar. Alembic. The name of this alchemical vessel has been sometimes applied to Mercury, because by its means the philosophers perform their distillations, sublimations, etc.

Alkali. In addition to its chemical meaning, this term signifies the Vessel of the Philosophers. Aloepaticum, a medicine used in complaints of the liver. Alopecia is a species of scab or mange arising in those portions of the body which are referable to Jupiter, i.e., the cranium. Paracelsus ascribes the disease to the presence of the spirit of Jupiter. When that spirit is separated from its natural humours and passes into its own minera, the result in the metallic kingdom is cachimia ; in trees, fungus ; and in the human body alopecia. The fish known as sea-fox was called Alopecias by Pliny. Alum. Common alum is distinct from the alum of the adepts ; the latter is their salt, which is a basis of alum, all salts, and all minerals and metals. Alumen Entali is identical with Alumen de Pluma or Alumen Scariola. It is said to be Gypsum and Asbestos. Alumen Plumosum, i.e., Alumen de Pluma. Alumen Saccharinum is Zaccharine Alum. Amalgam. The Amalgam of the philosophers is properly the union of philosophic Mercury with the sulphur or gold of the Sages. This does not take place after the fashion of ordinary chemistry, by pounding in a mortar, or otherwise, a solid and a liquid substance. It is the conduct of the fire of the philosophers according to the proper regimen ; that is to say, it is the perfecting of the work by continuous coction or digestion at an equal fire — sulphureous, covered in, and non-combustive.

Amethyst. In addition to the precious stone which bears this name, there was a grape so called by the Greeks of which the juice was said to be non-intoxicant. There is also a herb called amethyst by Pliny, having leaves of a red-wine colour. Angelica. Paracelsus considers that Spica and Angelica are not in their origin the result of a natural generation, but of that which he terms transplantation. In other words, they are hybrids, after the manner of the mule. The Angelica Ursina, Cardopatia, or Carlina, has in its roots the peculiar quality of depriving persons of their virile strength. Aniadus. a term of spagyric philosophy which signifies the powers and virtues of the stars, from which we receive celestial influences by the medium of fantasy and imagination. Anthera. a medical extraction made from hyacinths. Paracelsus affirms that the special astrological influences which reside in the sign of Scorpio are resisted by anthera. Anthos. In old botany this term signifies the flower of rosemary ; in alchemy it is the quintessence of the philosophers and their aurific elixir. Antimony. The antimony of the vulgar is to be distinguished from the antimony of the wise. They have apphed this name to the sulphureous mercurial matter which forms part of the philosophical composition. By

means of their antimonial vinegar an incombustible quicksilver is extracted from the body of Magnesia. This philosophical antimony is identical with the permanent water and the celestial water, in a word, with philosophical Mercury. It cleanses, purifies, and washes philosophical gold after the same manner that common antimony purifies common gold. Aqua Metallorum. Trevisan explains that this is Mercury, and Braccesco states that it is a single substance. Aqua Permanens. According to one interpretation, this is the Catholic Magnesia, or sperm of the world. It is also the Mercury of the Philosophers, and the water of the Sun and Moon. Aquarius is Salt Nitre. It is also the alchemical symbol of dissolution and disintegration. Aqua Viscosa. The generation of a metallic sperm is the chief object of those who wish to perform transmutation in the metallic kingdom, and this is done by first of all converting the whole body into a thick or viscous water. Indeed, Rupescissa declares that the matter of the stone itself is a viscous water which is to be found everywhere, but if the stone itself should be openly named the whole world would be revolutionised. Arcanum. This term is understood by Paracelsus to signify an incorporeal, immortal substance which in its nature is far above the understanding and experience of man. Its incorporeal quality is, however, only relative and by comparison with our own bodies. From the medicinal standpoint its excellence far exceeds that of any element which enters into our own constitution. The term is applied also to every species of tincture, whether metallic, vegetable, or animal. In general Hermetic science it signifies viscous mercurial matter, or Mercury animated by reunion with philosophic sulphur.

Arcanum of Human Blood. Many alchemists, both before and after Paracelsus, experimented with the blood of animals, and this not so much with a view to medicine as with the hope of discovering therein that matter of which the philosophers form their magistery. This magistery, indeed, passes sometimes under the name of Human Blood. According to Philalethes the reference is to the matter at the black stage. The name is really applied to philosophical Mercury. Even as the blood of animals nourishes their whole body, and is the principle of their physical constitution, so is this Mercury the base and principle of metals. Thus the blood of the little children who were slaughtered by Herod is pictured in the hieroglyph of Abraham the Jew and is a type of the radical humidity of metals extracted from the minera of the philosophers, which is symbolised by the children, this matter being still crude and left by Nature only on the way to perfection. The Sun and Moon come to bathe in this blood, because it is the fountain of the philosophers in which their king and queen lave themselves. Flamel, foreseeing that his allegory might receive a literal interpretation from some, warns his readers not to mistake actual human blood for the material of the stone, as it would be a foolish and abominable thing.

Arch^us. According to one interpretation, this name is applied by the Spagyrists to the Universal Agent specialised in each individual ; it is that which sets all Nature in motion, and disposes the germs and seeds of all sublunar beings to produce and multiply their species. Archialtis, or Archaltes, Archates, Archallem, the secret power of God by which the earth is held up in its place. Ares. The occult dispenser of Nature in the three prime principles. It is that which gives form and difference to species. The word is derived from the Greek, 'a/wjs, Mars. Argentum Vivum. The transmutation of metals, says the Clavicula of Raymond Lully, depends upon their previous reduction into volatile sophic argent vive. This is drier, hotter, and more digested than common Mercury. Arles Crudum. Certain little drops which fall in the month of June. Called also Hydatis. Aristolochy. This herb, which is corruptly called Birthwort, was made, into a decoction with wine and applied by Paracelsus as a healing plaster for fractures. The variety which he calls Aristolochia Acuta was used as an ingredient in the composition of an unguent for corroding ulcers. Aristolochia is supposed to promote child-birth. Arsanech is sublimed arsenic. Arsenic. The arcane sense of this term refers it to the Mercury of the philosophers, and at times to the matter of the philosophers when in the stage of putrefaction. It is stated, or supposed to be stated, in one of the Sibylline verses, that the name of the matter whence philosophical Mercury is extracted consists of nine letters.

Of these four are vowels and the rest consonants. One of the syllables is composed of three letters, the rest are of two. Hence it was concluded that Arsenicum was the name in question, more especially as the philosophers affirm that their matter is a deadly poison. However, the matter of the stone, according to other authorities, is not arsenic, though it is the matter of which arsenic and all mixed bodies are formed. Nor can the Mercury of the Sages be extracted from arsenic, for arsenic is sold by apothecaries and the minera of Mercury is found everywhere. The name has been given by some other writers to the matter in putrefaction, because it is then a most subtle and violent poison. Sometimes it refers to the volatile principle of the sages, which performs the office of female. It is their Mercury, their Moon, their Venus, their vegetable Saturn, their green Lion, etc. The arsenic of the philosophers whitens gold, even as the common arsenic whitens copper.

Artetic, Arthetica, a disease which contracts the nerves, tendons, ligaments, etc., and is very enervating and prostrating. AscLiTis is dropsy of the stomach. Asphalt is, according to Paracelsus, an extraction of black succinum. It is bitumen, also a kind of petroleum, or rock oil. Astrum. This term in Alchemy signifies the fixed and igneous substance, the principle of multiplication, extension, and all generation. It tends of itself to generation invariably ; but it acts only in so far as it is excited by the celestial heat which is diffused everywhere. The term also represents the highest virtue, power, and property acquired by the preparation of a given substance. The Astrum of Sulphur is sulphur reduced to an oil which far exceeds the virtues of natural sulphur. The Astrum of the Sun is the salt of the Sun reduced to an oil or water. The Astrum of Mercury is sublimated Mercury. The name is also given to the alcools or quintessences of things. Athanor. In exoteric chemistry this is a square or oblong furnace communicating on one side with a tower. The tower is filled with coals ; when these are lighted heat is communicated to the furnace by a funnel. The same name is applied analogically to the secret furnace of the philosophers, wherein a fire is always maintained at the same grade. It is unlike the vulgar athanor ; it is actually the matter itself animated by a sophic fire which is innate therein, and is developed by art.

Atrament. At the period of Paracelsus this term seems to have included all varieties of vitriol, chalcanthus, flower of copper, chalcitis, misy, sory, melanteria, etc. AuRATA. The fish called gilt-head by Quintillian. AuRicHALCUM. Brass, copper, ore, etc., cbs montanum, extracted from cuprine stone. More correctly, Orichalcum. AuRiPiGMENTUM. The body of orpiment is composed of Sulphur, its coagulation is from Salt, its brilliance from Mercury. It is of a petrine and metallic nature, yet it is neither a metal nor a stone Paracelsus, De Elemento Aqua. AuRUM PoTABiLE is either the Oil of Gold, or gold reduced to a liquor without a corrosive. The Golden Calf, which was ground to powder, sprinkled upon the waters, and given to the children of Israel to drink, has been regarded as an' allegory of the philosophers' potable gold. AuSTROMANCY is a method of divination by the winds. It is, apparently, a branch of the science of Aeromancy, which, says Agrippa, divines by aerial impressions, by the blowing of the winds, by rainbows, by circles about the moon and stars, by mists and clouds, and by imaginations in clouds and visions in the air. AXUNGIA is the fat of animals which was made into an oil and used as an unguent for wounds. The axungia of human beings is said to have been most efficacious, and next thereto that of the cock and capon. The only useful axungia from fishes was that obtained from the Thymallus.

Azoc. Mercury of the Philosopers, not vulgar and crude quicksilver, simply extracted from the mine, but a Mercury extracted from bodies by means of argent vive. It is an exceedingly ripe Mercury. It is with this substance that the philosophers wash their Laton; it is this which purifies impure bodies with the help of fire. By means of this azoc there is perfected that medicine which cures all diseases in the three kingdoms of Nature. It is made of the AzoTH also signifies Mercury. When the philosophers say that fire and Azoth suffice for the Great Work, they mean that Mercury prepared and well purified, or philosophical Mercury, are enough for the beginning and the completion of the whole labour, but the Mercury should be extracted from its minera by an ingenious artifice. Bernard Trevisan says that everyone beholds how this minera is changed into a white and dry matter, having the appearance of a stone, from which philosophical argent vive and sulphur are extracted by a strong ignition. Azoth has many names : — Astral Quintessence, Flying Slave, Animated Spirit, Ethelia, Auraric, etc. It will be seen that Azoth and Azoch are terms used interchangeably. They also stand for the universal medicine, which is arcane to the world, the sole true remedy, the physical stone, and also, according to some writers, they signify the Mercury of any metallic body.

Balm. The quintessence of Mercury is called the external balm of the elements. Balsam. Paracelsus affirms that the composition of balsams was first discovered by the alchemists, and he refers the name itself to the artifice which is required in its preparation. Every balsam, but more especially for wounds, should be of a sweet nature, not corrosive, not attractive, but possessing a consolidative quality. Balneum Mari^. The furnace of the Sages, the secret furnace, to be distinguished from that of ordinary chemistry. Sometimes the name is applied to philosophical Mercury. The term Bath is also given to a matter which is reduced into the form of a liquor. For example, when it is desired to make projection upon a metal, it is said that it must be in the bath, that is, in a state of fusion. Balneum Maris In alchemy this term seems to apply both to the vessel which holds the sea-water and to the dissolution that takes place in the vessel. The Balneum Marice is a bath of warm water, and the name is still applied to a large cooking pan. The Balneum Roris seems an interchangeable term for the sea-bath. The term bath is also applied to the matter itself when it is in a liquid state. Circulation in the philosophical ^^^ is also called the Bath of the Philosophers.

Balneum Nature. Eugenius Philalethes says that this is really the philosophical fire. Balneum Roris, see Balneum Maris. Basilisk. No one, according to Paracelsus, has any conception of the form or appearance of this animal, for the simple reason that no one can look at it without dying. According to one of his explanations it is a calf generated without a cow, that is, born of the male animal. Bdellium. A plant, and also the fragrant gum which exudes from it. Beani. This word, which is rendered novices on p. 154 of Vol. II., is said to have originated in the following acrostic : Beanus est animal nesciens vitam studiosorum. Benedicta Caryophyllata, that is, Caryophyllum, ther herb Benet or Blessed Avens. Paracelsus made use of it in tatareous complaints. Berilhstic Art, i.e., divination in the beryl. Paracelsus regards the the stone itself as a formation out of ice, by means of the glacial stars, which have a very great powder of congelation. Bitumen, i.e., Asphalt. Bismuth. As zinc, according to Paracelsus, is for the most part a spurious offspring of copper, so is Bismuth of tin. It is partly fluidic and partly ductile. Blood. Some alchemists have pretended, as previously stated, that human blood is the true subject and matter of the philosophers, but others say that this is not to be literally understood, and that those who experiment with this substance in athanors will have reason to deplore their error. Blood and Human Blood are, however, by no means uncommon designations for the arcane substance of the Magistery. Philalethes says that it is applied to the matter. It is an analogical term, the allusion being to the fact that the blood in animals carries the nourishment to every part of the body, and is the principle of their physical constitution. Mercury fulfils the same function in the mineral kingdom, for it is the foundation and principle of metals.

BoLETi. Boletus is a mushroom. Bolitus is the same as Bolbiton, i.e., the excrement of oxen. These explanations will, perhaps, not throw much light on the use of the term by Paracelsus. BociA. Bocium, according to Paracelsus, originates out of menstrua and hffimorrhoids, in the same place in which both of these fluxes join, producing a third which is peculiar to itself. Bolus Armenus on account of its great dryness was used by Paracelsus to heal wounds. Borax. This is said to have been melted with natural or artificial chrysocoUa, and was then used as a dissolvent and purifier of metals, especially gold and silver. The best borax was supposed to come from Alexandria. Bufonaria, probably Buphonon, a herb mentioned by Pliny, that is, the toadstool. BuGLOSSUM, i.e., Bugloss, or Borage. Bullae. ^ This causes wind, says Paracelsus, and its presence often Bulla. J indicates the beginning of colic, while in women it occasions fall of the womb. It is otherwise called Bleb, a little vesicle, or blister. Bulla is also a genus of mollusca. Cabala. The alchemists recognise a twofold Cabala. There is that which ends always in the letter where it begins, and this is the alphabetical system, the name and not the thing ; the shadow, not the substance ; the mere type of the inner Cabala. Within this there is the true, ancient, physical tradition, and this also has its complement in a metaphysical part.

The greatest mystery of the Cabala, according to one account by an alchemist, is Jacob's ladder. It is affirmed further that Jacob was not asleep during his vision, except in a mystical sense, for he had passed through death. It was, however, the cabalistical Mors osculi, or death of the kiss, of which those who know it must not speak one syllable. The false, grammatical Cabala consists only of alphabetical rotations, and a metathesis of letters in the text, by which Scripture is wrested. The book of Abraham the Jew, which was discovered by Flamel the alchemist, is supposed to prove that the true Cabala was chemical. Cachexia, a disease which, according to Paracelsus, usually supervenes upon other complaints, and in which the nutriment turns to evil humours. Cachimi^. This term is loosely applied to a variety of substances. It seems to have most generally signified the dross of metals, or an undigested metallic matter. Cagastric. There are two seeds of disease, the Iliastric and the Cagastric. The first is in the substance from the beginning, the second is generated out of putrefaction. Dropsy and gout are Iliastric ; plagues, fevers, pleurisy, etc., are of cagastric origin. Calamus, a sweet cane, growing in Arabia, India, and Syria. The root of the sweet flag. The resin called Dragon's Blood is obtained from a palm of the genus Calamus.

Calamine, a stone used in the composition of brass. Also an ore of Zinc, Cadmia. Calcanthus and Chalcanthus, see Atrament. It is copperas, vitriol, shoemaker's black, the water of copper. Calcatrippa, or Consolida Regalis, a herb used by Paracelsus for the cure of ulcers. Calcination is a pulverisation and purification of bodies by means of an exterior fire, either for effecting a disunion between their component parts, or for evaporating the humidity which combines them into a solid body. Calcination, corruption, and putrefaction are sometimes used interchangeably by the Spagyric philosophers, but calcination is most commonly that process which follows the rubefaction of the Stone. Philosophic Calcination is performed by the moist fire, or pontic water, of the Sages, which reduces bodies to their first principles without destroying their seminal and germinative virtues. These, on the other hand, perish under the calcination which is performed by a vulgar fire, and this is philosophically termed the Tyrant of Nature. There are two kinds of vulgar calcination ; the one is accomplished by an open fire, as over ashes, the other in a sealed vessel. In the first the sulphureous volatile parts evaporate, and the salts are deprived of a power and virtue which are conserved in the second. All salts extracted from such ashes crystallize.

Calendula, the herb marigold. Caleruthum. The reversion of any substance towards its first matter. Calx. In the language of the adepts this name is applied to all kinds of bodies when reduced to an impalpable powder, whether by the action of fire or of corrosive waters. Some say that it should only be applied to the ashes of metallic or mineral bodies, and that others should be called cinders. Calx Lun^, i.e.. Calcined Silver, or Blue Flower of Silver. Calx of Lead, i.e., Red Lead. Cantharides, a herb praised by Paracelsus because it draws out the humours from ulcers. The term stands for Spanish fly, a beetle which infests corn, and a kind of fish. Capella, a young goat or kid. Capillus Veneris, literally, the hair of Venus, a herb mentioned by Pliny. Caput Mortuum. The philosophers describe the so-called element of earth as an impure, sulphureous subsidence, or caput mortuum of the creation. Carabe is Succinum, and is said by Paracelsus to be an extract of the resin of its element. In another place he observes that it is a resolved petroleum, for wherever the latter is found, there also is Carabe. This and other stones void excrement like animals. If it be cast into water which is isolated from the air, its evacuations will coagulate the water, and worms will be produced.

Carabis Igneus, Cathabis, or Cathebis, the stag beetle, a prickly kind of crab. Carbuncle, is called also jaspis by Paracelsus, and he describes it as a golden stone, that is, of an aureate nature. Cardamomum, an Indian spice, of an aromatic, pungent, and medicinal quality. Carduus Angelicus, a thistle, which, according to the signatory art, has the magical marks indicating that it is a cure for pleurisy. Paracelsus says that it is to be reduced into ashes and then made into a lute. Cardamum, garden cress, that is, nasturtium, especially its seed, which was bruised and eaten by the ancients, and above all, the Persians, after the manner of our mustard. See Cardamomum. Carniola. The virtues of this plant are regarded by Paracelsus as of a celestial rather than an earthly origin. Cassatum, an unhealthy or dead blood in the veins. Cedusini. One of the arcane names of air is Cedue, and the cedusini are probably a class of aerial intelligences, or sylphs. Cella, the inner chamber of a bath. Cenificated Wine, i.e., falcined Wine. Centaury. The virtues of this plant prevail in complaints of the liver ; it strengthens and cleanses the separative force of this organ. Its liquor destroys serpents.

Ceration. This name is given to that stage of the philosophical process during which the matter passes from the black to the grey, and, ultimately, to the white colour. This is performed solely by digestion and coction without any addition whatsoever. Cerevissia, that \s, ale or beer. Cerussa, i.e , White Lead. Chalcedony, a stone which is said by Paracelsus to colour the i water in which it is steeped. It is classed as an extract from salt. Chamepitis, the herb ground-pine, or St. John's Wort. Chaomancy is substantially identical with aeromancy. It is a revelation of the stars of the air, and prognostication by means of the air. Chaos. Many other definitions of the Chaos are given by Paracelsus besides those which find a place among the treatises translated in these volumes. The term is also applied to the air which contains the cause of corruption. There is also a chaos in the human body, which is the motive force of all its interior operations. The universal world is in man, and that not analogically, but actually. It is also the chaos which conserves the body. Empty, immeasurable space. The rude, unformed mass out of which the world was created. The atmosphere. Finally, the term chaos is applied analogically to the matter of the work in putrefaction, because at that period the elements or principles of the stone are in such a state of confusion that they cannot be distinguished from one another.

Cheiri is a term of various meanings. Sometimes it stands for Mercury. Flos Cheiri is the Elixir at the white, though also the essence of gold. Flos Anthos is the Red Elixir of Gold. Generally it is the flower of any vegetable or plant. Paracelsus says of it : — There is no more powerful medicine for the liver. Its blackness is sublimed away and a white substance is left, which must be drunk mixed with wine of life. It removes all hepatic corruptions. Iliastric mysteries are contained therein. Here the reference is uncertain ; it may be to the narcissus, the violet, or the yellow gilliflower. Chelidony. Paracelsus calls chelidonia a constellated remedy, and names it as a powerful specific for certain ulcers which he also calls constellated. There was, moreover, a philosophic salt of chelidonia, which was medically applied by the alchemists. The same herb was regarded as a preventive of plague, and it was used as a remedy for jaundice. The plant is better known as swallowort or celandine. Chelidonia is also said to be a secret name of gold. Cherio. This is described as an accident of the external elements, whether cold or hot, through which all diseases are healed. Cherionium is an unalterable nature, such as indurated crystal, which it is not possible to dissolve.

Chimol^a Calcis. This should probably read Chimoleffi Calx. Cymolea or Chymolea is a Hermetic name for sedge or reeds. Cymolia is white waste ore, white silver litharge, marl, fuller's earth. Chiromancy is the beginning of Magic ; it is to that science what the alphabet is to writing. It is acquired easily, but at the same time is a most useful and illustrious art. It is the star of natural things. For example, there is a chiromancy of the lily, and in the lily a star abides which corresponds to the nature of that flower. Chrysocolla, gold solder, borax. Sometimes the term is used in an arcane sense and interchangeably with Argot, Rebis, etc. CiCHOREA, i.e., Succory. To this plant Paracelsus ascribes a certain peculiar congenital influence which it derives from the Sun, towards which its blossoms turn invariably, and when that luminary is absent it has very little virtue. At the proper moment the congenital influence can be extracted from the flowers. After seven years its root becomes transformed into a bird. CiNERiTiUM. This term has two meanings. In the first place it is an ash-pan often mentioned by Paracelsus ; secondly, it is an equivalent of Regale, an amalgam of gold and silver.

CiNETUS, the thickness of clouds. Cinnabar. Further information concerning this substance is scattered through the chirurgical and medical works of Paracelsus, in one of which he seems to regard it as a form of Mercury. Circulated Wine, i.e., the extracted spirit of wine. CiTRiNUS is a stone which occupies a middle position between the crystal and the beryl ; it is of yellow colour. CiTRiN^us and Citrones. See Citrinus. It is a pellucid variety of quartz. Clavellated. The herba clavellata is the herb-trinity, or heart's ease. Clissus, the entire essence of a substance amalgamated into one composition. Clissus is also an occult force going and returning from one place to another, as the virtue of a root which first passes to the stem and then returns to the root. (Rochus le Baillif, in his Spagyric Dictionary.) Petrus Poterius, in the Spagyric Pharmacopoeia, says, " Clissus is a certain union of all virtues in any plant, which virtues consist of the three primary substances, sulphur, salt, and mercury, such substances being severally educed from the single parts of plants." Coagulation. The bond of union in composites, and the common attraction between their parts. It is the rudiment of fixation. There are two kinds, even as there are two solutions. One is performed by cold, the other by heat, and each of these again is duplex, the one permanent, the other transitory. The first is fixation, the other coagulation simply : metals are an example of the first, and salts of the second.

CoLCOTHAR is defined by Paracelsus as a salt. He affirms that it is a signal specific for obstruction of the fluxes. Complexions. The ancient opinion on this subject was most explicitly rejected by Paracelsus. In man he admits only one complexion, which has a dual mode, namely, as hot or cold. He affirms that the theory which was current in his own day deserves no consideration in diseases. At the same time in his Explanatio Totius Astronomice he admits four complexions, not, however, in the body, but in the essence. CoLOCYNTH. Whosoever swallows two grains of the essence of colocynth shall be free from every impression of the moon and from all noxious properties present in the air. It was also recommended by Paracelsus as a cure for worms. Composition. It is held by some of the adepts that there is no perfect specifical nature which is simple and void of composition save God alone. Thus the soul of man itself was compounded of an excessively tenuous fire and of the most uncompounded form of light. Copper. In alchemy an alternative name with Laton, signifying the matter at the black. Copper Green, i.e., Verdigris. Copulation. In alchemical terminology this is the union of the philosophical male and female, the fixed and the volatile.

Coral. This was used by Paracelsus as a remedy for the plague, the falling sickness, and against poison. Corporal Mercury. The innumerable recipes for corporal Mercury found in the Manual of Paracelsus may be illustrated by a classification which is given in his chirurgical works. He observes that there are three bodies in Mercury — that out of which it is generated, before it has become perfect ; that by virtue of which it is that which it is ; and that which it becomes when it is prepared by art. According to Arnoldus de Villa Nova corporal Mercury is another name for the Mercury of the Philosophers, which see. CosTUS. The plant usually known as herba Maria, that is, Zedoary, passes under this name. Crispula, i.e., cristula, crispa, the herb called cock's-spur. Crocus. Hermetic chemists have sometimes given the name of Crocus or Saffron to their fixed matter when it has attained the colour of red orange. Crucible. The alchemical crucible is described as a clay melting vessel, capable of withstanding a severe degree of heat. It had a narrow base and widened out into a round and triangular body. The cupel was a species of crucible. CUBEB.E, a drug so-called. A small, spicy berry, something like pepper.

Cyanum and Cyanus. According to some this is a kind of blue jasper ; others say that it is a turquoise or lazule. It is also the flower commonly called bluebottle. A rock bird. A blue dye or lacquer. Cyclamen, Cyclaminus, and Cyclaminum, the herb sow-bread ; a tuberous rooted plant used for garlands. Cyroglossum, hound's-tongue, a plant. The liquor of Cyroglossum is an arcanum for falling of the womb. Dardo, a term of unknown meaning which occurs only in the treatise Concerning Long Life. Daura is the same as hellebore and winter aconite. Sometimes also it is supposed to signify foliated gold. Dealbation, the washing of the Laton, that is, the coction of the matter until all its blackness departs and the substance remains white. It is the removal of all impurities. Deltic. The term Deltic impression, made use of by Paracelsus in his work Concerning Long Life, Is another mystery in the terminology of that strange treatise. The conjecture may be hazarded that it is derived from the Greek word Deltas, a writing tablet, when the Deltic impression would be analogical to that made upon a wax tablet by a stylus. Denarius, properly the Roman denier, seven of which were at one time equal to a Troy ounce. Afterwards there were eight to the ounce. In the Lower Empire a silver denier scarcely weighed half so much.

Denary, see Ternarius. Agrippa calls the number ten a manifold religion and power applied to the purging of souls. It possesses a divine quality ; there is no real number beyond it j just as it flows back into unity so everything returns to its proper source, even the spirit unto God who gave it. Derses, a certain arcane smoke or terrene vapour, which is the principle of vegetable birth and growth. Diagridium, a preparation of scammony and quince-juice. Diapensia, the plant alchimilla, which see. Diathesis, an innate art or nature. A physical predisposition towards a given disease. Dieme^ or Dienez, said to be spiritual essences which inhabit large stones. Dissolution, according to Trevisan, is the whole mystery of the art, and it is to be accomplished not, as some have thought, by means of fire, but in a wholly abstruse manner, by the help of Mercury. Distillation. Later writers agree with Paracelsus as to the variety of complicated processes in the operation of the great work. Those who would be accounted wise must labour to find out the Mercury, so that they may reduce things to their mean spermatic chaos, and may avoid broiling destruction. Futile distillation, in particular, will be dispensed with by one who remembers that sperms are not made by separation, but by composition of elements ; to bring a body into a sperm is not to distil it, but to reduce the whole into one thick water, keeping all the parts thereof in their first natural union.

Divertallum, a generation of the elements, otherwise a production from metals. Drachum, i.e., a drachm. Dracanculus, dragon's wort, or wild adder's tongue. There is a shellfish also so called by Pliny. Dragon's Blood. Alchemically speaking, this is the Tincture of Antimony. DuBELCOLEPH, or Dubelteleph, a composition of white coral and amber. DuELECH, a dangerous and painful tartareous and porous stone which forms in the human body, especially in the bladder. Durdales, wood nymphs, spirits of the trees, etc. Eagle. This name has been applied by the philosophers to their Mercury after sublimation, firstly, on account of its volatility, and, secondly, because even as the eagle devours other birds, so does the Mercury of the Sages destroy, consume, and reduce even gold itself to its first matter. The term is also applied to sal ammoniac and to sublimated Mercur)', because of their facility in subliming. Yet the reference is not to the vulgar substances, but to those of the philosophers. The Eagle "which devours the Lion signifies the volatilization of the fixed by the volatile, or of the sulphur by the Mercury of the Sages. Electrum is gold, according to one interpretation, but it was not used in this sense by Paracelsus. Sometimes it is a conjunction of seven metals into one composition according to the conjunction of the planets. It is also the middle substance between ore and metal, neither wholly perfect nor altogether imperfect. It is, indeed, on the way to perfection, but Nature, having encountered hindrances, has left it. Hence the philosophers say that we must begin where she leaves off. It is called, says one account, Electrum because it is composed of two substances, and immature because it must be perfected by the operations of the artist. Properly it is the Moon of the Philosophers, sometimes called Water, sometimes Plant, Tree, Dragon, Green Lion, Shadow of the Sun, etc. Electrum is also one of the names which have been given to the Magistery at the white.

Elements. Some of the adepts enumerate only two elements, earth, the residence of the matrix, and water, which is the mother of all things visible. Every element is, however, threefold, this triplicity being the express image of their Author, and the seal He has set upon His creatures. There is no created thing too simple, vile, or abject in the sight of man, but that it bears witness of God in respect of that abstruse mystery. His unity and trinity. Every compound whatsoever is three in one and one in three. v Elixir. Avicenna speaks of a duplex elixir, and the first matter from which it is produced is also duplex. The Elixir is nothing else, according to Trevisan, than the reduction of the body into mercurial water, from which water the Elixir is extracted, that is, an animated spirit. The Elixir is the second part or operation in the achievement of the sages, as Rebis is the first and the Tincture the third. There are three species of Elixirs in the Magistery. The first is that which the ancients called the Elixir of Bodies. It is that which is performed by the first rotation. The second is performed by seven imbibitions, even to the white and the red. The third is the Elixir of Spirits and is attained by fermentation ; it is also called the Elixir of Fire, and with this multiplication is accomplished.

Embryonated, i.e., fecundated, implanted with seed. Thus Embryonated Sulphur is a term used by the alchemists to distinguish one of their principles from the ordinary substance of sulphur. Emunctory, an opening for the escape of corrupt matter. Thus, an ulcer is an emunctorium, and so are the ordinary channels of expurgation. Enochdiani. It may be conjectured that these beings are of the race of Enoch and Elias, who were wrapt away into another world wherein they are still supposed to retain their mortal bodies. The prophets mentioned are according to mystic speculation by no means the only persons who have thus been "caught up to heaven," i.e , into the unseen, without dying in the flesh. Ens, Entia. The first extract of mineral natures is the primum ens of its kingdom. The primum ens of the animal world is in the blood or in the ova. It is tlie first matter, the seat of life and motion. Enur, the hidden vapour of water, out of which stones are generated. Eruc^, a palmer, or canker-worm, also the herb rocket. EsCHARA is dead flesh. Essence of the Greater Circulatum, unknown. EsTHiOMENSis is Lupus, St. Anthony's fire. Esula, the herb tithymallus, or spurge.

Ethica, a kind of fever. Euphrasia, the herb eyebright, once regarded as valuable in diseases of the eyes. Eve. When used in a purely alchemical sense, this name signifies the mastery of the philosophers at the white stage. Adam, similarly, is the Magisterium at the red. EvESTRUM, the eternal substance of heaven. Also a prophetic spirit, which interprets the signs of coming events. Finally the double, living phantasm, or sidereal body of man. Fel Vitri, glass gall, i.e., Sandiver, a whitish salt scum cast up from glass in a state of fusion. Ferment. The sophic Mercury which, together with the sophic sulphur, is said by Avicenna to be the original substance from which all metals were created, is also declared to be a ferment for every body with which it is united chemically. It is the universal vivific spirit which penetrates, exalts, and develops everything. It is the grand metallic elixir, and its potencies are educed by the operation of fire. Though found in all minerals it is really a terrestrial matter, which possesses lucidity, fluidity, and a silverine colour. Another account says that it is the fixed matter which, combined with Mercury, causes it to ferment and communicates to it the nature which it needs.

FiLLA, possibly Fella, ?.e., a name sometimes applied to sulphur-water. Fire. It is said that the common chemist works with common fire, using no medium, and so he generates nothing, not working, as God does, for preservation, but for destruction. Hence he always ends in ashes. The disciple of the philosophers should use it with an intermediate phlegma, so that his materials shall rest in a third element, where the violence of fire cannot reach, but its soul only. Fire of the Philosophers. Some adepts affirm this to be the greatest crux of the art. It is a close, aerial, circular, bright fire, which the philosophers call their sun. It causes a certain vapour to arise in the glass which contains the matter, and digests the latter by a still, piercing, vital heat. It is continuous, producing at length an alteration and corruption of the philosophical chaos. Its proportion and regimen are very scrupulous. To understand the proper degree of this fire, the generation of man or some other animal should be considered. Firmament, a name of Lazurium. Also the upper part of the Hermetic vessel. First Matter. The first matter, by the universal agreement of all alchemists, was existent before man and before all other creatures ; it was, indeed, the mother of them all. The philosoper, in seeking it for the special purpose of his art, must avoid all common salts, stones, minerals, vegetables, and animals. It is totally impossible to reduce any particular to the first matter, or to a sperm, without philosophical Mercury, and being so reduced, it is not universal, but the particular sperm of its own species, and does not work any effects save such as are agreeable to the nature of that species.

Fixation Is a process by which a naturally volatile substance is rendered fixed. The principle of fixation is a fixed salt, and digestion at a suitable fire. Hermetic chemists say that the perfection of fixation can only be obtained by the operation and processes of the Stone of the Philosophers, that their Matter is also susceptible to it, and that the state is attained when it is brought by coction to the ruby-red colour. It is performed by a philosophical fire of the third degree. Flammula, or Citrinula, is crow's-foot. Flos. This term frequently occurs in Paracelsus, and it has many meanings and many variations in alchemy. It is given to the spirits which are enclosed in the philosophical matter. These spirits are so lively that it is always recommended that the fire should be applied gently, as otherwise they may burst the vessels. The name of Flowers is also applied to the different colours which appear in the matter during the process of the work. The Flower oj the Sun is the citrine redness which precedes the ruby redness. The Fbwer of Lily is the white colour which goes before the citrine. The Flower of the Salt of the Philosophers is the perfection of the stone. The Flower

of Gold \s sometimes the Mercury of the philosophers and sometime the citrine colour. The Flower of Wisdom is the Elixir perfect at the red. The Flower of the Air is dew. The Flower of Water is flos salts. The Flower of the Earth is the dew and the flowers. The Flower of Heaven is a species of manna from which an admirable liquor is extracted. Some have erroneously regarded it as the true philosophical matter. The Flower of the Wall is saltpetre. Philosophical Flos ceris is the matter of the work towards the end of putrefaction, and when it begins to grow white. The Flower of Cheiri is essence of gold. The Flower of Sapience is the Elixir perfect at the red. There are also other explanations of the Flower of the Sun and of Gold. It is the sparkling whiteness, more brilliant than that of snow itself, which characterizes the matter at the white. It is the fixed body of the Mastery, which is not to be understood of any flowers or tinctures extracted from common gold, but of the philosophical gold only, and of the fixed portion of the composition of the Mastery by means of which the volatile part is also fixed, according to the regimen of a prudent heat and the governance of a perfect coction.

Flying Eagle, the Mercury of the philosophers. FcENO Gr^cum, i.e., Foenum Graecum, a leguminous plant of the clover family. Foliated Earth. This is said to be the Mercurial Water in which gold is sown. Four Elements. The development of things out of the four elements occurs, according to Agrippa, by the way of transmutation. Each element has two specific qualities, one of which is proper to itself, and the other is a mean by which it corresponds to that which comes after it, as, for example, fire is hot and dry, earth dry and cold. He also recognizes that each element is threefold, that so, he says, the number four may make up the number twelve ; and by passing the number seven into the number ten, there may be a progress to the supreme unity, upon which all virtue and wonderful operation depend. Of the first order are the pure elements, which are neither compounded nor changed, nor admit of mixture, but are incorruptible. Through these the virtues of all natural things are brought into act. No man can declare their virtues, because they can do all things upon all things. He who is ignorant of them will never bring to pass any wonderful matter. Of the second order are the elements that are compounded, changeable, and impure, yet such as may by art be reduced to their simplicity ; their virtue, thus reduced, perfects above all things all occult and common operations of Nature, and these are the foundation of all natural magic. Of the third order are those elements which originally and of themselves are not elements, but are twice compounded, various, and interchangeable. They are the infallible medium, the middle nature, or soul of the middle nature. Very few understand the deep mysteries thereof. By means of certain numbers, degrees, and orders, they contain the perfection of every efi'ect in what thing soever, natural, celestial, or supercelestial ; they are full of wonders and mysteries,

and are operative both in natural and divine magic. From and through these proceed the bindings, loosings, and transmutations of all things, the knowing and foretelling of things to come, the expulsion of evil and the attracting of good spirits. Let no man, therefore, without these three sorts of elements, and the knowledge thereof, be confident that he is able to work anything in the occult sciences of Magic and Nature. But whosoever shall know how to reduce those of one order into those of another, impure into pure, compounded into simple, and shall understand distinctly their nature, power, and virtue in number, degrees, and order, without dividing the substance, shall easily attain to the knowledge and perfect operation of all natural things and celestial secrets. FuLiGO Mercurii. The fuligo Metallorum is properly arsenic in alchemical symbolism, but it often stands for Mercury. FuLMiNATiON is the graduated depuration of metals. It is so called because the metals become brilliant and diffuse radiance from time to time during the process. A red pellicle forms above, and when it disappears little sparkles are manifested at intervals. FuMUS is Fimus, i.e., dung. Galanga, i.e., Galingale or Galangal, an Asiatic plant ; the roots have a hot and spice-like flavour, accompanied by an aromatic smell.

Galbanum, a gum or liquor having a very strong smell. Derived from an umbelliferous plant. Gamalei, or Gemetrei, Gamathei, etc., certain natural stones which, owing to some powerful astrological influence, receive extraordinary magical impressions. There are also artificial Gamathei engraved with magical figures, and used for talismans. Garyophyllon, i.e., Caryophyllum, the clove gilli-flower. Geomancy. According to Cornelius Agrippa, who preceded Paracelsus, and was, like Paracelsus himself, a disciple of Trithemius, geomancy is an art of divination whereby a judgment may be given by lot, or destiny, to every question whatsoever. It consists in the use of certain points, arranged in figures which are in harmony with celestial figures. It can, however, shew forth no truth unless it be founded in some divine virtue. It is supposed that the hand of the operator is directed by the spirits of the earth, so that incantations and other magical rites are resorted to in connection with geomancy. The soul itself of the operator also enters actively into the process. Gluten, in addition to its ordinary significance, means ox-gall. It is also the sinonium of Paracelsus which resembles the white of ^e^. Gluten of Sulphur. In the three prime principles Paracelsus appears to have recognised a certain superincession, and as gluten was alchemically sometimes a name of salt, the reference may be to the innate salt which was supposed to exist in sulphur. Gluten is also Blood, Lime, etc.

Gold, the most pure and perfect of all metals, has been called by the adepts the Sun, Apollo, Phoebus, and other names, especially when it has been considered philosophically. Gold, as applied to the ordinary purposes of society, they term Dead Gold. Etherised Gold is philosophic gold. Ba'ie Gold is sometimes a deceptive description of the living gold of the sages. White Gold is the Magistery of the Philosophers attained to the white grade from which subsequently develops their orange gold and perfect redness, which alone is their true gold, their ferment, and their red smoke. Gold in Spirit is the gold of the sages reduced into its first matter, which they also term gold reincruded and volatilised by Mercury. When the sages tell the student to take gold, the reference is not to the vulgar metal but to the fixed matter of the Great Work, wherein their living gold is concealed as in a prison. Their 24carat gold is their gold pure and unmixed with any foreign elements. Volatile Gold is the fulminating gold of Crollius. Gold of Coral is the matter fixed at the red. Gold of Gum is the fixed matter of the philosophers. Exalted, Multiplied, or Sublimated Gold is the powder of projection. Vivified Gold is gold reincruded and volatilised. Gold of Alchemy is the sulphur of the philosophers. Foliated Gold is the sulphur of the philosophers in dissolution.

Gran.\te, i.e., Granatum, a pomegranate. Grand Magisterium. The operation of the Magnum Opus, the separation of the pure from the impure, the volatilisation of the fixed and the fixation of the volatile one by the other, because no artist will succeed by operating separately on either. The philosophers say that the principle of their magistery is one, four, three, two, and one. The first unit is the first matter whence all has been made ; the number four represents the four elements which are formed of this matter ; the number three represents Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury ; the number two is Rebis, the volatile and the fixed ; the final unit is the stone, or that which is the result of the process and the fruit of all the Hermetic labours. In exoteric chemistry there are three kinds of magisteries, of which one has reference to the quality of the composites, the second to their substance, the third to their colour, odour, etc. Great Arcanum. Roger Bacon, or, more correctly, a treatise attributed to him, affirms that the great and supreme arcanum of Hermetic philosophy is hidden in the four elements. Espagnet says that its production requires a perfect knowledge of all Nature and art concerning the realm of metals, which is obtained by analysis of metallic principles.

Green Lion. Philosophical chemists frequently make use of this term to signify one of the matters which enter into the composition of the Magistery. Usually it is their male or their Sun, both before and after the confection of their animated Mercury. Before confection it is the fixed part, or matter capable of resisting the action of fire. After confection it is still the fixed matter, but more perfect than before. In the first instance it is the Lion simply ; it becomes the Red Lion by preparation. The Mercury is made with the first, and the stone, or elixir, with the second. The Old Lion is the fixed part of the stone, so called because it is the principle of the whole. The VOL. II. Z 370 The Hermetic mid Alchemical Writings of Paracelstcs. Green Lion is the matter made use of for the Magistery. It is certainly mineral and derived from the mineral kingdom. It is the base of all the menstrua of which the philosophers have spoken. Of this they have composed their mineral dissolvent. Grillus, or Grilla, a name of Venus, or Copper. It is also a mild species of chalcanthus used as a purgative. GuARiNi. Men who derive their life from the influence of heaven.

GuTTA Rosacea is a red breaking out in the face. Halcyon, the kingfisher. The fabulous bird of that name, and also the foam of the sea. Hallereon, the Eagle of the Philosophers. Harmel, the seed of the herb Rue, but it is impossible to affirm the special significance which Paracelsus may have attached to the term in his supplementary treatise Concerning Long Life. Heliotrope, the Melissa of Theophrastus. Heliotrope, a plant which follows the sun with its leaves and flowers, herba sohiitialis. A gem used as a lens to look at the sun. Hellebore. A plant used by the ancients as a specific for many illnesses, especially for madness, Hermes. Albertus Magnus affirms that this mysterious adept was the first who discovered the grand magisterium. Hermodactylus, the wild saff"ron, or, according to some, dog's-bane. Hildonius, an unknown hierarchy of elementary spirits. HippuRis, the herb horse-tail, or shave-grass. The hipparus is a kind of lobster. Hippus, or Hippeus, is a kind of crab-fish, the sea horseman. HiRUNDiNARiA, or Hirundinina, swallow-wort. Honey. A name given to the philosophical dissolvent. Hop-PLANT, that is, Lupulus. Humidity of the Philosophers. Arnoldus de Villa Nova says : I tell thee further that we could not possibly find, neither could the philosophers before us, anything that would persist in the fire, save the unctuous humidity. A watery humidity easily vapours away, its earth remains behind, and its parts are separated because their composition is not natural. Unctuous and viscous humidities are hardly separable from those parts which are natural to them. A treatise attributed to Albertus Magnus assumes that all metals are composed of an unctuous and subtle humidity, intimately incorporated with a subtle and perfect matter.

HuMULUs, a plant of the hop genus. See Hop-plant. Hydromancy, according to Cornelius Agrippa, performs its presages by the impressions of water, its ebbing and flowing, increase, depressions, tempests, colours, etc. To this must be added the visions that are seen in the water. Hydromel. a kind of meal. Honey diluted with water. Hyposarcha, i.e., Hypersarcosis, fungous or proud flesh. Ilech. This terms seems identical with Ileias and Ileadus. The primum Hech is the beginning. The supernatural Ilech is the supercelestial conjunction and union of the stars of the firmament with the stars of things below. The great Ilech is the star of medicine. When we take medicine we assimilate this star. Crude Ilech is a composition of the three principles, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. It seems also to be elemental air. Iliaster, Illeias, Eliaster, Iliadum, etc., the first chaos of the universal matter, constituted of Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. The prime principle. Called also Ilion. Isopic Art, see Ysopus, etc. Jacinth ; from this stone a medicine called Antera was extracted. Jaculation, a darting or casting. Jesichach, or Jesahach, is supernatural. King. A name used in two different senses by the philosophers. Most commonly it is the sulphur of the sages, or philosophical gold, being an allusion to vulgar gold, which is called the king of metals. Sometimes it is a name of the matter which enters at the beginning into the composition of Mercury, and is the first fire thereof, that fixed grain which has to overcome the mercurial cold and volatility.

It seems to be used in both these senses by Basil Valentine in his Twelve Keys. Subsequently he applies the name of King to perfect sulphur and even to the powder of projection. The King is also identical with the Lion. When referring to the powder of projection it is said that the King so loves his brethren that he gives them his own flesh to eat, and thus makes them all kings like himself, that is to say, gold.

KiST, an uncertain weight. It may be of fifteen grains, or four pounds. It also signifies two measures of wine, or half a gallon. Kybrick, or Kibric, a name given to the stone. It signifies also the father and first matter of Mercury and all fluids. Lac Virginis. A name given to the Mercury of the philosophers. It is also mercurial water, and the vinegar of the philosophers. The Mercury of the philosophers, under the form of a milky water in the humid way. It has further been applied sometimes in the dry way when the matter has been brought to the white. Lapis Lazuli, i.e., lazulus, the azure or lazule stone. Laterine Oil, an oil obtained from bricks. Laton, copper, or brass, but also a certain state of the philosophical matter when the red colour has appeared, but is not yet permanently acquired. It is, further, a name of electrum. The blood of the Laton is that dry water which is extracted from the virgin earth of the sages. Laudanum. This name is said to be used by Paracelsus in another than the ordinary sense, and to signify a specific for fevers which was a compost of gold, corals, pearls, etc. Another writer says that it is a medicine beyond all praise,

made out of two substances, than which nothing more excellent can be found in all the world, and whereby almost every disease is cured. Laureus. This, apparently, is a race of wood spirits. Compare Laurus, a laurel. Leffas, the occult vapour of the earth, the principle of vegetable life and growth, that is, the predestination of plants, the sap of plants. See Derses. Lentigo, a freckle, pimple, or spot on the face. Lentor, a clammy or gluish humour. LiGUSTicuM, lovage of Lombardy. LiLi. One author says that this is in general any matter from which a good tincture can be made, as, for example, antimony. The lilium of Paracelsus is the extraction of a tincture from metals. LiMBUS. The spagyric philosophers for the most part identify the Limbus with ancient chaos. It has been described as a huddle of matter wherein all things were strangely contained. Some regard it as uncreated, but if otherwise, then it was an effect of the Divine Imagination, acting beyond itself in contemplation of that which was to come, and producing its passive darkness for a subject on which to operate. It also stands for the universal world, with the four elements thereof. Limbus of Man. At death the earthly parts of man return to the earth, but the celestial portion departs to a superior, heavenly Limbus, while the spirit goes back to God who gave it.

Liquor Horizontis, probably liquor of Mercury. Litharge, i.e.. Litharge of Silver, is the matter of the work when it has arrived at the white colour under the process of the Sages. Litharge of Gold is the Stone at the red, otherwise, the Sulphur of the Philosophers. LoccA, or Lorcha, the essential sweetness of the locusts of trees. Locusts. This name is applied to several different plants and trees. Paracelsus seems to have used it to signify the young shoots of any vegetation. Lunaria, moon-wort, an ingredient for love-potions. Machaon, possibly Macha, a flying worm. Magistery. The strength of the perfect magisterium, according to Avicenna, is one part upon a thousand, that is to say, it will transmute a thousand times its own quantity of base metal into gold. This tinging power, however, varies, and even larger quantities are mentioned by other adepts. See Grand Magisterium. Magnalia, great and divine works. Magnesia. This term, which is occasionally used by Paracelsus in its alchemical, as distinct from its chemical sense, has received many explanations from the adepts. It is the matter of the stone, which the philosophers sometimes call their red, and sometimes their white magnesia. In the first preparation the chaos is blood-red, because the central sulphur is stirred up and discovered by the philosophical fire. In the second it is exceedingly white and transparent like the heavens. It is something like common quicksilver, but of such a celestial and transcendent brightness, that nothing on earth can be compared to it.

It is the child of the elements, a pure virgin, from whom nothing has been generated as yet. When she breeds, it is by the fire of Nature, which is her husband. She is neither animal, vegetable, nor mineral, nor is she an extraction from these ; she is pre-existent to them all, and is their mother. She is a pure simple substance, yielding to nothing but love, because generation is her aim, and that is never accomplished by violence. She produces from her heart a thick, heavy, snow-white water, which is the Lac Virginis, and afterwards blood from her heart. Lastly she presents a secret crystal. She is one and three, but at the same time she is four and five. She is the Catholic Magnesia, the Sperm of the World, out of which all natural things are generated. Her body is in a sense incorruptible ; the common elements will not destroy it, neither does she mix with them essentially. Outwardly she resembles a stone, and yet she is no stone. The philosophers call her their white gum, water of their sea, water of life, most pure and blessed water ; she is a thick, permanent, saltish water, which does not wet the hand, a dry water, viscous, slimy, and generated from the saline fatness of the earth. Fire cannot destroy her, for she is herself fire, having within her a portion of the universal fire of Nature, and a secret, celestial spirit, animated and quickened by God. She is a middle nature between thick and thin, not altogether earthly, not wholly igneous, but a mean aerial substance, to be found everywhere and at all seasons.

Magnet. Alchemically speaking, this is the dew of the philosophers. Man and Wife. Most philosophers have compared the confection of the Magistery to the generation of humanity. They have, therefore, personified the two parts or ingredients of the work, namely, the fixed and the volatile, as the male and female, man and wife, etc. Manna is, in some instances, the Mercury of the philosophers, called also divine manna, because they affirm that the secret of its extraction is a gift of God, as also the knowledge of that Mercury which is the minera whence it is derived. Marcasite. Many species were known to the old chemists, for all stones which contained any proportion of metal were so called, and even sulphureous stones, vitriolic stones, etc., were included under the same term. Marrubium, i.e., the herb horehound. Martagon is Silphium, a kind of lily. Matter of the Philosophers. This has been compared to the sperm of an animal,, for it is a most delicate substance, almost a living thing ; indeed. it possesses some portion of life, and Nature produces certain animals out of it. For this reason the least violence destroys it, preventing all generation. If it be overheated for even a few minutes, the white and red sulphurs will never essentially unite and coagulate. On the other hand, however well the work has been begun, should it grow cold for so short a space as half an hour, it will come to no good end afterwards.

Meligia, probably Melisea, i.e., motherwort, a kind of manna or balsam, obtained by a magisterial process upon vegetables. Meliagris is frittany. Mellilot, the dulcis et mellea lotus of Ovid, called Sertula campana by Pliny. The herb mellilot. Melona, ? Melina, a drink made of honey. Menstruum. This term is used in a very arcane manner by some alchemists, who speak of the menstruum or matrix of the world, wherein all things are framed and preserved. It is a certain oleaginous and ethereal water. Mercurial Liquor, a balsam of things in which all health resides. It is most potent in tereniabin and nostoch. Mercury. According to Arnoldus de Villa Nova, the Mercury of the philosophers is an aqueous, cold, and moist element. This is their permanent water, the spirit of the body, unctuous vapour, blessed water, virtuous water, water of the wise, philosophers' vinegar, mineral water, dew of heavenly grace, virgin's milk, corporal mercury, etc. All these names signify one only thing ; out of this all the virtue of the art is extracted, and, according to its nature, the tincture, both the red and the white. Mercury, by another account, is composed of a metallic and fluidic earth. There are as many Mercuries as metals, which can all combine with the fluidic earth, and this in such a manner that separation is impossible. The whole secret of Hermetic philosophy and the Great Work consists in the wonderful sympathy between those Mercuries and this earth.

Dissolving Mercury, used by spagyric philosophers for the reduction of metals, minerals, vegetables, and all bodies to their first matter, is of three kinds : Simple dissolving Mercury; composite dissolving Mercury, which is properly their true Mercury, and common Mercury, or that which is extracted from metals. Simple Mercury is a water extracted according to the principles of their art from a matter, the true name of which they have carefully concealed under an infinity of false descriptions. White Mercury of the Sages is the stone at the white. Red Mercury is the magistery perfect at the red. Universal Mercury is the animating spirit diffused throughout the universe. Crude Mercury is the dissolvent of the sages, not that vulgar quicksilver which is called crude mercury by chemists. Preparing Mercury is this same dissolvent, which prepares soluble bodies for their development into the perfection of the magistery.

Mercury of Luna. Flamel directs that the Mercury of the Moon should be taken with that of the Sun, and cherished over the fire in an alembic. It must not be a fire of coals or wood, but a bright, shining fire, like the sun itself ; its heat must never be excessive, but always of one and the same degree. Thus is performed the plantation of one into the other. Mercury of Sol. The unctuous humidity of the philosophers is called water of silver and water of the moon, but it is really, say others, the Mercury of the Sun, and partly that of Saturn. Indeed, it is an extract of the three metals, and without these it can never be made. Microcosm. Sir George Ripley, a celebrated English alchemist, describes the stone as a triutje microcosm. Proportion must be studied in its composition. The matter itself is found everywhere. It flies with fowls in the air, swims with fishes in the sea, it is discerned by the reason of angels, and it governs man and woman. Minera. The alchemists mention a minera of man as well as of metallic things. It is also the First Matter of the Philosophers' Stone. It is water and not water, earth and not earth, the Damascene earth, the subject of art, and that also of which God made use in Nature.

Mithridatic, pertaining to mithridate, an old antidote against poison. MoREE, Moro, Mores, a kind of abscess. MoRPHEW, or Morphea, a species of leprosy. Mother of Metals, argentum vive, i.e., live silver. MuMiA. Whatsoever when killed has the power of healing diseases. Hence Mumia of the elements is the balsam of the external elements. Mumta irammarina is manna. Mumia versa, according to some opinions, is liquor of Mumia. MuRiA, brine or salt water. Also stinking menstruum. Myrobolanum, the Egyptian bean, a fruit used by apothecaries in the manufacture of precious ointments ; an oil is obtained from the kernel. Mysterium Magnum. This is used by the alchemical philosophers in another sense than that of Paracelsus. The operation or confection of the great work is called a mystery of the philosophers, because they discover it only to their most intimate friends Some also refer under this name to the first matter of the work, because that is the most concealed portion of all their Necrolicus. As Necrolia and Necrolica are medicaments which prevent death and preserve life, so it is reasonable to suppose that a Necrolicus is the administer of their medicines. But he is also a person who has written learnedly on any subject.

Nenuphar, a generic name of the elementary spirits of the air. It also signifies a water lily. Nepita, the herb net, or catmint. Neufarinis, a generic name of elementary spirits. Nostoch, the efflux of a certain star, according to Paracelsus. It is deposited on the earth in summer, appearing like a yellow fungus, but in consistency it is like a jelly. Some say it is wax. Ogertum or Ogertinum, i.e., Orpiment. Oil of the Philosophers. Though oil simply so called has nothing to do with the Great Work, and must not be used in confection, the name has been applied to the matter during that period when it has assumed an oleaginous colour and viscosity. This is when it is undergoing putrefaction in the philosophical &%%. Oil of the philosophers also signifies the Secret Fire of the Sages. What is termed by some alchemists Blessed Oil is incombustible, philosophical oil, the sophic sulphur, also the stone perfect at the white, or red, because it runs and melts before the fire like butter. Oil oj Nature is the prime salt which is the basis of all salts. It is called oil because it is unctuous, melting, and penetrating, and oil of Nature because it is the base of all the individual substances in the three kingdoms, and is their material conserver and restorer. It is the best, the most noble, the most fixed, and at the same time the most volatile before its preparation.

When it is sought to be employed by art, it must be brought from the fixed to the volatile, and from the volatile to the fixed : to solve and to coagulate is the whole work. Essential Oil is the volatile sulphur of the philosophic metals ; it is their soul, the male, the Sun, the gold of the sages. Oil of Saturn is the matter of the philosophers at the black stage, because their matter in putrefaction is called lead. Oil of Sulphur is also sometimes the matter at the black stage. Incombustible Oil is the mastery at the red, so called because of its fixation. Live Oil is the mastery at the white. Vegetable Oil is oil of philosophical, not vulgar, tartar.

Oil of Iron. The Sulphur of the Philosophers at the red. Olibanum, an inspissated sap, or gum-resin. Onagir, i.e., Onager, the wild ass. Opoponax, the juice of the panax, or herb all-heal. Panis Siliginis, or Panis Siligineus, white bread, or fine manchet. Pannus, a cloth or bag. Paratelus, of unknown signification, but the text of the treatise Concerning Long Life makes it barely possible that it is a corruption of Paraclete. Part with Part, a composition of equal parts of gold and silver. Peacock's Tail. The matter of the work at that moment when the colours in the tail of the peacock manifest on the surface. Pelican. An alchemical vessel, so called after the bird of that name. The body tapers towards the neck, which is bent round, and the tube returns into the body. Pentaphyllum, the herb cinquefoil. Peri-pneumonia, inflammation of the lungs. Persian Fire, a scorching and spreading ulcer. Per Scobam, possibly per scobem, from scobs, any powder that comes of sawing, filing, etc. Persicaria, the herb culerage or peachwort. Petroselinar, a kind of parsley growing among rocks. Philosophers' Stone. This is one, says Arnold de Villa Nova, and he adds that it can be extracted from all bodies, including common quicksilver. The first physical work is the dissolution of the stone in its own Mercury, so as to reduce it to its first matter. Jacob Bohme describes the philosophers' stone as dark, disesteemed, and grey in colour.

Philosophical Egg. While the majority of chemists have supposed that the sages applied the name of Philosophical Egg to the vessel in which they enclose their matter for coction, and have consequently shaped it like an egg, this does not represent the idea or the sense of the sages, although at the same time such a shape is the most convenient for circulation. The &%% of the philosophers is not that which contains ; it is that which is contained ; that is, the true vessel of Nature. Therein the philosophic chicken is concealed, which the internal fire of the t%%, excited by the warmth of the hen, vivifies by degrees, and gives life to that matter of which it is the root, whence there is at length born the philosophical infant which perfects and enriches his brethren. Again : the s.^^ signifies most commonly the actual matter of the mastery, which contains the Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, even as the ordinary z^^ is composed of the white, the }'olk, and the pellicle. Philosophical Month, i.e., the period required for chemical digestion. Phlegm. When this term is made use of in connection with the operations of alchemy, it signifies a certain aquosity or vapour given off from the matter of the work, becoming white in the process of distilling. It is for this reason that the same name is applied to the stone and to philosophical Mercury in the grade of the white.

Phcenix, the fire in the quintessence, the physical stone. PocALE, a measure of wine. Prunella, i.e., Prunellus, the bull^ce-tree. Putrefaction. The corruption of the moist substance of bodies by a defect of heat, or, otherwise by the action of a foreign fire on the matter. It is in this sense that the spagyric philosophers say that the matter of their stone is in putrefaction when the heat of the extrinsic fire setting into action the internal fire of the said matter, the two act in concert thereupon, separating the humidity which binds its parts, and after several circulations in the hermetically sealed aludel, reducing the matter into dust. Pyromancy is divination by the impressions of fire, by comets, by fiery colours, by visions and imaginations in the fire. Capnomancy, or divination by smoke, is an art mentioned by Agrippa as allied to Pyromancy. Quarta, probably a measure containing five ounces of wine and four and a half ounces of oil. Quartation, an old method of testing gold. In melting, nine parts of silver were added to one of gold, and both were resolved by aquafortis, which held the silver in solution, and the gold settled at the bottom. Quintessence. Paracelsus, though possibly the first, was by no means the last of the alchemists to describe the term quintessence as a misnomer. Eugenius Philalethes affirms that there is no quintessence, no fifth principle, except Almighty God. There is a quartessence which is a moist and silent fire, which passes through all things in the world and is Nature's chariot, the mask and screen of the Almighty.

Wheresoever God is there this train of fire attends Him. It was this fire which was manifested to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to another authority, the terms quintessence, specific, magnetism, bond, seed of the pure elements, etc., are all synonyms of one substance, a subject wherein the form abides. It is a material essence, which encloses an operative and celestial spirit. Others say that it is the fifth principle of composites, comprising the finest portion of the four elements. The Quintessence of the Elements is the Mercury of the Philosophers.

Rabeloia, the roots of the larger ranunculus. Rainwater. This is the common soft water, mentioned sometimes by Paracelsus. Realgar is red orpiment. Rebis. Among other meanings attached to this curious term, it is said to be the last matter of things, and this may be understood either literally, as excrement, or philosophically, as opposed to the first matter. Alchemically, it is the fixed and the volatile. Recta Croa, i.e., flos sectae cross, flower of the crocus, an extract of chelidony leaves. Also flower of the nutmeg. Red Lion. The spagyric philosophers have given this name to the terrestrial and mineral matter which remains at the bottom of the vessel after sublimation of the spirits, called eagles. This Red Lion is also called Laton. Reduction. This is the retrogradation of a substance which has reached a certain degree of perfection to a degree of a lower order. The reduction of metals into their first matter is their philosophic, not the vulgar, retrogradation into their proper seed, that is to say, into a Hermetic Mercury. It is also called reincrudation, and is performed by the dissolution of the fixed by its proper volatile, from which it has been made. Regulus, literally, the little king.

Relollea, arcane virtues, called also relolleum. RuBEDO DE NiGRO, a red substance, extracted by art from black lime. RuBiFicATiON. The process under which the philosophical matter passes from the white to the red stage. Ruby. With the philosophers this sometimes means the magistery at the red. So also their precious ruby is the powder of projection. Sag^. The saga is properly a witch, sorceress, or wise woman. The sagani are the elementary spirits. Sagapin, a Persian gum-resin. A Short Lexicon of Alchemy. ^yg Salamander. In alchemical terminology this name is sometimes applied to the philosophical matter, and then the term Blood of the Salamander signifies the red state. More usually it is the redness which appears in the recipient in the distillation of nitre and vitriol. Salt. This substance was supposed by the alchemists to consist of a small quantity of sulphureous earth and a large proportion of mercurial water. It was the substantial matter of bodies, of which the form was Sulphur. Three chief species were distinguished, the nitrous, the marine, and the vitriolated, to which some add the tartareous. The marine was regarded as the most important. From this salt volatilised comes Nitre, from Nitre comes Tartar, and from Tartar, when cooked and digested, comes Vitriol. There was also another classification as volatile, mean, and fixed Salt. Fusible Salt is the Matter of the Sages cooked and perfect at the white ; it was so called because it is actually a salt which melts like wax when placed upon a plate of red hot metal.

Salt of Metals. Some investigators, taking this expression literally, have imagined that the Matter of the Philosophers was a metallic substance reduced into a salt or a vitriol, but the reference is to the Magistery at the white, because even as salt is the principle of the vulgar metals, so that of the Sages is the root of the first matter of philosophical metals. Red Salt is the red Sulphur of the Sages. Salt Alacoph is Sal Ammoniac. Bitter Salt is Alkali. Salt of Greece is Alum. Indian Salt is the Mercury of the Sages. Salt of Bread is marine or common salt. Salt of the Sages is Sal Ammoniac, the natural kind, or philosophic Nitre, but the true Salt of the Sages is their Matter at the white. Acid Salt is philosophical Mercury. Salt Adram is Sal Gemma, also called Salt of Cappadocia. Burnt Salt is the Matter at the black stage. Salt of the Earth is the Mercury of the Sages. Salt in Flcwer is the Mercury of the Sages, or the Dry Water of the Sages. Salt of Glass is the Mercury of the Sages. Fixed Salt is the Sulphur of the Sages. Honoured Salt is the Matter of which the Hermetic Mercury is made. Salt of Saturn is lead reduced to a salt. Sea Salt is the Mercury of the Sages. Spiritualised Salt is the philosophers' spirit of salt. It is their Mercury prepared by Hermetic sublimation. Universal Salt is the Mercury of the Sages.

Sal Anatron, salt nitre, red salt of the Indies. It is also called Sal Andaron. Saldini, also called Rolamandri, are igneous men, otherwise essences of the race of the Salamander. Sal Gemm^ is Hungarian salt. It is also called Sal Nominis and Salt of Hungary. Salt Nitre, see Salt. Sal Peregrinum is very probably another name for the alchemical Salt of Tartar. Salt of Tartar, white calcined tartar. Samech, tartar, or salt of tartar ; also the healing power of all wounds. Sandarac, a bright red colour used by painters ; it is found in mines of gold and silver ; some call it red arsenic. There is another species made of burnt ceruse ; also red lead. Another name is cerinth. Sapphire. The philosophers have given this name to their mercurial water. Saturn, i.e. , Lead. This metal is said by Isaac the Hollander to be the first matter of the philosophers. It is also a name for the philosophical matter in putrefaction. It is further the Adrop of the Sages or the Azotified Vitriol of Raymond Lully. Finally, it is a name sometimes confusedly applied to ordinary copper. Satyrion, or Orchis, the herb ragwort, or priest-pintle. ScARioL^. The fourfold spiritual powers of the mind, corresponding to the four elements and the four cabalistical wheels of fire of that chariot which took up the prophet Elias. They are soul emanations or faculties, fancy, imagination, speculation, etc. These under religious sanctification become instruments for the attainment, not merely of long, but of eternal life.

SCORI.E. Impurities separated from minerals and metals during fusion. Sealed Earth, a red earth. Seed. The seed, or first matter of the Stone, says the Persian alchemist, Rachaidibi, is outwardly cold and moist, but inwardly hot and dry. Rhodion, the instructor of Calid, says that it is white and liquid, but afterwards it becomes red. It is the flying stone, aerial and volatile. It has one virtue inwardly and another outwardly. See Sperm, First IVIatter, etc. Separation. This process, so often referred to by Paracelsus, is also mentioned by pseudo-Hermes, who has these significant words : Know, ye that are children of the wise, the separation of the ancient philosophers was performed upon water, which separation divides the water into other four substances. Sepulchre, the glass vessel which contains the matter of the philosophical work ; the dissolvent of the sages ; the black stage of the matter. SicoNius, unknown, a race of elementaries. SiLiGO, a species of corn. Smagma, called also both Smegma and Smigma, is a detersive substance. Smiris, Smyris, a stone with which glaziers cut glass, and with which lapidaries polish gems. Spagyric Science is that which teaches the division and resolution of bodies, with the separation of their principles, either by natural or violent means. Its object is the alteration, purification, and perfection of bodies, that is to say, their generation and their medicine. It is attained by solution ; success is impossible if their construction and principles are ignored, because these serve for dissolution. The heterogeneous and accidental parts are separated with a view to the intimate reunion of the homogeneous portions.

Spagyric Philosophy, properly so-called, is the same as Hermetic Philosophy. Spathus, or Spatha, a pounding instrument. Spatula, or Spathula, a broad and flat instrument, like a slice. It is used in certain furnaces for regulating the heat. A damper. Spelt, i.e., German grain, a kind of wheat. Sperm of the World, that is, catholic magnesia. It is said to be very salt, extremely soft, somewhat thin and fluid, having no relation to ordinary salts, a sperm that Nature herself draws out of the elements without the help of art. Man may find it where Nature leaves it, it is not his office to make the sperm, nor to extract it ; it is already made, and wants nothing but a matrix, with heat convenient for generation. Sphere of the Sun, the dual matter of the stone, the heaven, i.e., the quintessence. Spodium, ash of gold, but sometimes applied to pompholix and to a kind of tutty. Spread Eagle. In common chemistry this represented sublimed sal ammoniac, and, in the Hermetic sense, it was the volatilisation of the matter. Steel. The steel of the philosophers is a subject of frequent reference, and it has caused many persons to seek the philosophic stone in this substance, but in vain. The steel of the sages is the wine of their philosophic gold, a spirit pure above all, an infernal and secret fire, most volatile in its nature, and the receptacle of superior and inferior virtues.

Stellio, an eft or newt. Stibium. In the first place, black lead and its derivatives ; secondly, a name of antimony; thirdly, a certain stone found in silver mines. Stomach of the Ostrich. The chemical philosophers give this name to their dissolvent or philosophical Mercury. Stone of the Philosophers. The Rosicrucian philosophers say that in the impregnable fortress of truth is contained the true and undoubted Philosophers' Stone, that treasure which, uneaten by moths and unstolen by thieves, remaineth to eternity, though all things else dissolve, set up for the ruin of many and the salvation of some. To the crowd this matter is vile, exceedingly contemptible and odious, but to the philosophers it is more precious than gems or gold. It loves all, yet it is well-nigh an enemy to all ; it is to be found everywhere, yet scarcely anyone has discovered it. It is the one thing proclaimed by veritable philosophers, which overcomes all, is itself overcome by nothing, searches heart and body, penetrates everything stony and solid, strengthens all things delicate, and establishes its own power on the opposition of that which is most hard. It is the way of truth, and there is no other path to life. It is the true medicine, rectifying and transmuting that which is no more into that which it was before corruption, even into something better, and that which is not into that which it ought to be. The gold of the philosophers with which the wise are enriched is not that gold which is coined.

Storax Calamita. Storax is a sweet incense or gum. Struthio, an ostrich. Soap-wort, used for cleaning wool, a chaplet of this flower. Sublimation is the purification of the Matter by means of dissolution and reduction of the same into its constituents. It is not the forcing of the Matter to the top of the vessel, and then maintaining it separated from its caput mortuum, but its subtilization and purification from all earthly and heterogeneous parts, imparting to it a degree of perfection not previously possessed, or, more correctly, its deliverance from the bonds which bind it, and hinder its operation. Sulphur Vive. This substance, which is one of the profound mysteries of alchemy, is identical with the red sulphur of the philosophers. Some persons, led astray by Hermetic symbolism, have gone to work on native sulphur, assuming it to be the true matter of the art, but though this name is applied to it, the reference is really to that substance when it has attained the perfection of the red or white. It is then the true philosophical sulphur, and, according to Raymond Lully, is not to be sensibly distinguished from the true Mercury, which has no connection whatsoever with common sulphur. Mention is also made of a white sulphur, which some say is Mercury educed from potentiality into activity by the operations of the Magistery and following the principles of the Medicine of the First Order. It may be noted in this connection that Sulphur of Vitriol is the Soul of Vitriol, and so also with Mars, Sol, etc.

Black Sulphur is Antimony ; unctuous Sulphur is another name for the Sulphur of the philosophers. Narcotic Sulphur of Vitriol is an extract of Vitriol which is described by Beguin ; Paracelsus himself regarded Vitriol as the best of all anodynes. Ambrosial Sulphur is a natural red Sulphur, very transparent and met with in large lumps. Green Sulphur is the Sulphur of the Sages. What the alchemists call True Sulphur is the fixed grain of their matter, the true internal agent which acts upon, digests, and cocts its own proper mercurial matter wherein it is enclosed. Sulphur Zarnel is another name for philosophical Sulphur. The Sulphur of Nature is yet another. Some, however, apply it to the matter at the white. One author says that it is the essential menstruum made from Mercury and spirit of wine seven times rectified, which dissolves the calx of the Sun and Moon, or at least, extracts their tincture, with which gold is nourished by a simple yet secret series of operations. But there is some doubt on this point. Universal Sulphur is affirmed to be the Light from which all particular sulphurs proceed.

Sun and Moon. The influence of Paracelsus on the later alchemists is shewn very clearly in their speculations concerning Luna and Sol ; as for example : The Sun and Moon are two magical principles, the one active and masculine, the other passive and feminine. As they move so move the wheels of corruption and generation. They naturally dissolve and compound, but properly the Moon is the instrument of the transmutation of the inferior nature. There is no compound in Nature which has not a little sun and a little moon, a Son of the heavenly Sun, and a Daughter of the celestial Moon. What is performed by the great luminaries for the conservation of the great world, is analogically accomplished for the microcosm by the lesser luminaries. The little Moon is our incombustible, eternal oil, the receptacle of the little Sun, which is a fire. These are the Sol and Luna of the philosophers, not gold and silver. Sylvesters, the fauns of classical mythology. Syphita Prava, St. Vitus's Dance. Syphita Stricta, the fantastic spirit of sleep-walkers. Syrones, pimples or boils on the hands. Talc. The older alchemists have often made reference to what they term an Oil of Talc, to which they have attributed so many virtues that subsequently chemists have exerted all their power to compose it. They have calcined, purified, and sublimed the matter in question, but have met with no success. The reason is that the term was used allegorically, and that the reference was to the Oil of the Philosophers, the elixir at the white.

Tanacetum, the herb tansey. Tapsus, i.e., Tapsos, a kind of herb. Tartar, a name applied to the mastery at the white stage. Taurus b . This zodiacal sign represents asphalt or bitumen in alchemical symbolism. Tentigo Prava, ? a severe stiffness, or contraction. Tereniabin. a variety of manna. Ternary. The author of Anima Magica Abscondita observes th^t some philosophers who, by the special mercy of God, attained to the Ternarius, could never, notwithstanding, obtain the perfect medicine. Elsewhere in the same treatise he says that this Ternarius, being reduced by the Quaternary, ascends to the magical decad, which is the exceeding single monad, in which state it can perform whatsoever it pleases, for it is united thus, face to face, with the first eternal, spiritual Unity. Testa, potsherd, tile, brick ; also a metallurgical term, signifying bloom. But it seems to have had another meaning in the treatise Concerning Long Life. It is said to be the skin of man's body. TESTiE OvORUM, &%^ shells. Theriac. Any antidote to poison. Thronus, i.e., Thronum, a flower or herb used as drugs or charms. Tibia, the shank or shinbone. TiGiLLUM, a funnel, a crucible. TiTHYMAL, the sea lettuce, wolf's milk, or milk thistle. Also spurge, euphorbia ; many kinds were known to the ancients. Physicians used the juice or berries as a purgative.

Tragacanth, probably Trajanthes, a species of Artemisia. Also gum dragant, a low shrub. The astragalus, whence the gum tragacanth. Transmutation. The soul of man is affirmed by the alchemists to possess an absolute power in miraculous, that is, in more than natural transmutation. Trarames. Spirits who are not seen but heard only, as rapping or throwing spirits. Trifertes, the same as salamanders. Triplicity. Besides the triplicity, which exists in the elements and in all created subjects, there is another more obscure and mystical triplicity, which is recognised by adepts. Without this the former cannot be attained. These three principles are the key of all Nature. The first is one in one and one from one ; it is a pure white virgin, and next to that which is most pure and simple. It is the first created unity, the bride of God and of the stars, through which as a medium all things were made, and are still made, both in things natural and in things of art. The second principle does not differ from the first in substance or dignity, but only in complexion and order. The third principle is not, properly speaking, a true principle, but rather a product of art; it is a various nature, consisting of superior and inferior powers. It is the magician's fire, the Mercury of the philosophers, the microcosmus and the Adam.

Trines, possibly Triones, the constellation called Charles's Wain. Tripolis. Tripolium is the herb called turbit or blue daisy. Tritorium, a vessel for grinding, mortar, or pestle. Tronosia, that is, Tronossa, honey-dew. Tronus, same as Tronosia. Truphit, the principle of development in every metal, a secret virtue of minerals. TuRBiTH, a root much used in medicine to purge off phlegm. Mineral Turbith is sweet, non-corrosive, precipitated Mercury. Unions. The term ~.mio or union was applied to the pearl, because though many are found in one shell, not one is exactly like another. Universal Medicine. Most recipes of the adepts given for the preparation of the absolute elixir, are more obscure even than Paracelsus, as, for an example : Take ten parts of celestial slime ; separate the male from the female, and each afterwards from its earth, but physically, mark you, and with no violence. Conjoin after separation in due, harmonic, vital proportion. Straightway the soul, descending from the pyroplastic sphere, shall restore, by a vivific embrace, its dead and deserted body. The conjoined substances shall be warmed by a natural fire in a perfect marriage of spirit and body. Proceed according to the Vulcanico-magical theory till they are exalted into the fifth metaphysical rota. This is that world-renowned medicine of which so many have scribbled, and yet so few have known.

Valerian, the great set wall. Venter Equinus. According to an explanation of Paracelsus the Venter Equinus is the digestive power. Vessel of the Philosophers. Geber describes this instrument as a round glass vessel with a flat round bottom. This and all other simple explanations concerning it are supposed to be wholly deceptive, and it is regarded as one of the most profound mysteries of all alchemical art. A treatise attributed to S. Thomas Aquinas says that there is but one vase, one substance, one way, and one only operation. Verbena, the herb Vervain. Verto, a weight equivalent to the fourth part of a pound. Vessel of Hermes, see Vessel of the Philosophers. Victorialis is probably Victoriola, the Alexandrian laurel, or tonguelaurel. Paracelsus refers to its magical powers, and says that the lorinds can be made to manifest by means of it. ViNUM Ardens. According to Paracelsus the correction of Vinum Ardens is by distillation as long as it will ascend, for the removal of the aqueous part. Vinum Essatum, wine impregnated with the virtues of herbs or other substances. Virgin Mercury and Virgin Sulphur. According to one explanation these are the heaven and earth of Moses. ViTiSTA, i.e., St. Vitus's dance. Paracelsus terms it a disease of the imagination.

Vitriol. The philosophers apply this name to their green or crude matter. Their White Vitriol is the magistery at the white. Their Red Vitriol is their sulphur perfect at the red. Metallic Vitriol is the salts of metals. VuA, that is, Uva. This is firstly the grape, and stands, by an extension of meaning, for the vine itself. Analogically it is any bunch or cluster. There is also a swelling of the uvula which passes under this name. Finally, there is uva quercina, a concretion occasionally found at the roots of oak-trees, possessing medicinal properties, especially in dysentery. Vulcan is said by Paracelsus to be the master of the alchemists and spagyrists. Water. So early as the days of the Greek author Theophrastus, the origin of metals is said to have been referred to water. The same writer mentions that Callias, an Athenian, endeavouring to make gold, brought his materials into cinnabar. Xylobalsamum, the wood of the balsam-tree. Yle, wood ; timber ; the matter or stuff of which a thing is made ; the raw unwrought material, whether wood, stone, or metal. In chemical signification, a simple substance, a base matter ; as a principle of being, first found in Aristotle, and frequently later in philosophical writers, — usually as opposed to the intelligent principle.

, [ The art of smelting and fusing. YsoPAic Art. ) " ^ YuADUM, Yliadus, Yleidus, etc. The interior spirit which informs" the members of every body. Outwardly it generates health, but inwardly disease in humanity. It also leads on to the crisis in diseases. Disease is the resolution of the Yliadus. The reason of this seems to be that the interior spirit contains many species of salts. The resolution of arsenic in the body causes plague ; the resolution of ogertinum, or orpiment, causes pleurisy; the resolution of vitriolated salt causes another disorder which Paracelsus describes as a disease characterized by a paroxysm, by swellings of the throat, and ulceration of the tongue. Elsewhere Paracelsus says that Yleidus is elemental air, and that its obstruction in any part of the body occasions disease. There is an Yliadus of the elements and one also of man. Yrcus. The male coney, or rabbit. The blood of this animal was supposed to soften glass and flints when pounded and made into a paste therewith. It had also a similar effect upon other crystalline substances. It is written Hircus by the ignorant. It should be noted in this connection that cuniculus, that is, the word which usually signifies coney, also stands for the long pipe attached to a still or a furnace.

Zelotum is Petrine Mercury. ZiNCTUM, or Zinetum. Paracelsus describes this as a little known metal, of a peculiar nature and seed. Many metals are adulterated therein. It is of itself fluxile, for it is generated from the flux of the three prime principles. It is fusible but not malleable. He states that he is unacquainted with its ultimate matter. It is akin to quicksilver, and it does not admit of combination with other metals. ZoNNETi Gnomi. These are fantastic bodies. ZwiTTER, a species of Marcasite ; also roasted ore. Note. — Some explanations contained in the foregoing Vocabulary concerning known substances are not in correspondence with modern knowledge, and it should be understood that they represent chemical science during the period of Paracelsus and of Alchemy. Abraham, a Vulcanic philosopher, i. 48. Acetum, i. 197, 199 ; ii. 52, 85, 89. Adam, the inventor of Arts, i. 48 ; Hermaphroditic Adam, 66 ; a name of the Stone, ib., 161 «. ; the Protoplast, 188 ; the first Signator, ib., 201 n. ; ii. 70. Set also ii. 113, 285, 327, 329. Adamant, a black crystal, i. 17 ; how dissolved, ib. ; its generation, 17 «. ; white adamant, ib.

Adamic Matter, i. 66. Adamic Flesh, i. 94 ». Adech, i. 219, 223 ; ii. 345, 346. Aes Ustum, i. 141, 142. Aetnean Fire, i. 159. Air, element of, i. 206, 208 «., 210, 211 ; separation of elements from, ii. 20 ; Air of the Philosophers, i. 298 ; Air the cloister of the Invisible Fates, ii. 253. Albertus Magnus, i. 57, S9. 67, 95, 243. Alchemical Phoenix, i. 40. Alchemist, one who brings forth that which is latent in Nature, ii. 156. Alchemy, cause of its difficulty, i. 4 ; futility of many recipes and processes, I, 3 ; actual nature of the art, ib. ; what alchemy is, 16 ; what it teaches, 15 ; materials and instruments required in it, ib. ; not affected by the aspects and courses of the planets, 16 ; alchemy as an inferior heaven, 16 «. ; alchemy from God, 73 ; comprised in facts, not words, 89 ; praise of the art, ii. 95 n. ; Tincture of Alchemy, i. 251; medical pyrotechny, ii. 150; an external bowel, 151; experience in alchemy, 154 ». ; alchemy of colours, 157 ; external alchemy, 166. Alkali, magistery and essence of, ii. 130,

Almadir, i. 66, 69, 70. Aloth, Sol converled into, i. 321. Alum, i. 153, 19s, 197, 224, 237, 266 ; medical virtues of rock alum, ii. 221 ; medical virtues of alumen plumosum, 22 1, 222 ; medical virtues of alumen entali, 222. Amarissima, i. 230. Amber, i. 158 ; ii. 54. Ambergris, i. 137 ; ii. 60. Amethyst, its colour, i. 18 ; whence extracted, 18 «. Anacardus, ii. 23, 47. Anachmus, ii 343. Anachthron, medical uses of, ii. 222, 223. Anaxagoras, i, 68. Aniadus, i. 227, 228, 230; ii. 197, 342, 345, 346. Animal Stone, i. 56. Animation, i. 64, Anismut, i. 145. Anthion, ii. 89. Anthos, i. 227; quintessence of, 11, 26; ii. Antimoniac, i. no; antimoniac minerals, 311. Antimony, importance of, i. 31 ; the true bath of gold, 62 ; the white lead of the wise, ib. ; supreme arcanum of, 63 ; oil of, ib. ; purple liquor of, 63 «. ; fixation of, 313 ; antimony in Saturn, 8 ; set also 266, 275 ; quintessence of, ii. 26 ; element of, 130 ; medical uses of, 199, 200, 201. Aquafortis, i. 136, 278. Aqua Regis, i. 37, 38. Aquaster, ii. 340, 345, 346-

Aquinas, S. Thomas, i. 67, 69, 117. Arcanum, what it is, i. 21 n., ii. 37 ; arcana derived from the firmament, i. 74 ; oil of arcanum, 333 ; arcana and quintessences, ii. 37 ; arcanum of the Stone, i. 53, 71, ii. 89 ; see also ii. 87, 119. 151. AA3 Archa, ii. 324, 325. Archelaus, i. ig ; ii. 155. Archeus, i. 92, 97 ; identical with Nature, 97 »., 125, 127 «., 129, 160 n. ; Archeus and his signatures, 171 ; see also 184, 190, 233 «., 240, 247, 291, 292, 293 ; ii. 167, 179, 180, 318, 321, 322. Ares, i. loi «., 127 «., 233 n. ; ii. 179, 329, 341Argentum Vivura, i. 148. Aristotle, i. 20, 26, 73, 95, 99, 244 ; fatuity of his philosophy, 28 ; confuted by sulphur, 264, 265 ; Aristotle the alchemist, i. 68. Arithmetic, ii. 297. Arnold de Villa Nova, i. 52, 69, 71, 299. Arsenic, fixation of, i. 58 n. ; false process for, i. 59 ; three spirits of, ib. ; varieties of, 59 «. ; alchemical virtues in, 107 n. ; see also 288 ; medical virtues of, ii. 210, 211. Arsenicals, i. no. Art, how to learn it, i. 72 ; arcanum of, 74 n. ;

to whom made known, 88 ; 254, 294. Artemisia, i. 230. Art of Vulcan, ii. 165 ; special office of, 166. Ascension, i. 153. Astral Gold, i. 301. Astral Spirits, ii. 296, 313. Astral Science, i. 171. Astrology and Alchemy, i. 16 ; science of, ii. 294, 29s, 297-299, 313. Astronomic Magic, i. 51. Astronomy, agreement with Alchemy, i. 23 ; seven faculties of, ii. 282, 293. Astrum, i. 37. Athanor, i. 284 ; ii. 153. Atrament, i. 166. Augmentation of Sol, i. 142. Aurelius Augurellus, i. 87. Aurichalcum, i. 164. Auripigment, i. no, 184, 268. Aurum Musicum, i. 149. Aurum Potabile, i. 38 ; how gold is made potable, 38 n. ; 100 ; ii. 130. Auster, i. 218. Avicenna, i. 20, 36, 39, 73, 95, 243 ; ii. 82, 155, 162, 169. Azoc, i. 69. Bacon, Roger, i. 50. Balneum Marise, i. 168 ; ii. 35, 85. Balneum Maris, i. 58, 75 ; ii. 55. Balneum Roris, i. 157. Balm of Sulphur, i. 290. Balsam, i. 227, 245, 257, 258, 259, 261 ; ii. 69, 71 ; Balsam of the Stars, i. 38 ; congenital Balsam, 38 «. ; confection of, ii. ; Balsam of Mars, i. 136 ; Balsam the first elixir, ii. 72 ; corporal Balsam, 92 ; spiritual, 93 ; Balsam of the coagulated body, ib. ; perpetual Balsam, 96 ; loi.

Basilisk, generation of, i. 55, 123. Bath of the Philosophers, i. 298. Bean flowers, ii. 79. Berillistic Art, i. 171. Bishop of Strasburg, recipe of, i. 322. Bismuth, i. 167, 266 ; bitumen and antimony, i. 8. Blessed Blood of Rosy Colour, i. 55. Blood, arcanum of, i. 131. Bloodstone, medical uses of, ii. 208, 209. Burning Star, i. 288, 301. Cabalists and the vessel of alchemy, i. 68 ; cabalistic art, i. 161 ; cabalistic cosmography, 161 n. Cachimije, i. 223, 237, 255 ; medical uses of, ii. 204. Calamine, medical uses of, ii. 206, 207. Calcination, i. 139, 151. Calcined Blood, i. 59 n. Calid, i. 56. ' Caput Mortuum, i. 23, 32, 33, 35, 104, 141, 154. I97j 314Caraba, i. 137. Carbuncle, a solar stone, L 17 ; of what formed, 17 «. ; 276 ; how made, 318, Catholicon of the Philosophers, i. 29. Celandine, a coagulation of Mercury, i. 54 ; quintessence of, ii. 27. Celestial powers, the elements of the quintessence, i. S- Cement in Sol, i. 312. Chaomancy, i. 190, 193. Chalcanthum, in Venus, i. 38. Chalcedony, the lowest of precious stones, i. 18 ; extracted from salt through the amethyst, 18 n, ; 224.

Characters, ii. 295, 313. Chaos, i. 207, 231, 295, 297, 301, 304. Chemical pathway of Paracelsus, the, i. 298. Cheyri, the Great, ii. 339, 340. Chiromancy, i. 179-181, etc. ; ii. 313. Christ the first spagyrist, i. 28. Chrysocolla, i. 162, 183, 184. Cimiabar, i. 159, 184. Circulated Salt, ii. 87. Circulatum, ii. 51, 54. Civet, i. 137 ; ii. 61. Coagulation, i. 154 ; coagulation and resolution, i. 53 '2- Coelum Philosophorum, ii. 22. Colcothar of Vitriol as a coagulate of Mercury, i. 54. Colic, i. 264 ; ii. 264, 319. Colocinth, i. 229 ; ii. 59, 146. Comets, ii. 295, 313. Combustion of Minerals, i. 311. Complexions, ii. 117, 150, 172. Copper, i. 224, 278, 336 ; medical virtues of, ii. 228, 229. Coral, nature of, i. 17 ; species of, 17 «. ; quintessence of, ii. 24 ; magistery of, 53 ; medical uses of, ii. 214, 215. Corporal Resin, ii. 17. Crocus of Copper, i. 142. Crocus of Iron, i. 140, 200 «. , 274 ; ii. 35. Crocus of Mercury, i. 200 ;/. Crocus of Sol, i. 144. Crystal, whence extracted, i. 18; to what referable. 18 ». ; coagulation of, ib. ; theory of conjuration in, 14, 225 ; medical uses of, ii, 216, 217.

Crystalline, i. 268. Cyamus, ii. 138. Cyanean Stone, i. 158. Cyclopes, ii. 261. Cyphanta, ii. 346. Cyroglossum, i. 189. Death, the Mother of Tinctures, i. 138 ; death twofold, 146 ; death not caused by disease, ii. 108. Degrees, two only, ii. 172 ; elementated degrees, ib. ; rules of, 174 ; degrees of herbs, ib. ; of heat and cold, 175 ; concealed degrees, 176 ; first degree of heat, 181, 183 ; second degree of heat, 182 ; first degree of cold, 182 ; second degree of cold, 183, 184 ; third and fourth degrees of heat, lb. ; grade of health, 187; grades of spagyric industry, 190 ; degrees in relation to disease, 192, 193, 194; grades of disease, 197. Deltic Nature, ii. 331. Destruction a perfecting agent, i. 4. Diana of the Wise, i. 298. Diocletian, destroyer of Spagyric books, i. 19. Dioscorides, ii. 155, 156. Divination, l 185 ; stars of, 191 ; science of, ii. 294, 29s, 296, 301, 302. Divining Rod, i. 185. Domor, i. 202, 203. Doses, ii. 196, 197, 198. Dreams, ii. 296, 313. Dropsy, i. 197 rt. Dust of Metals, i. 308. Earth, element of, i. 221 ; philosophy of, 228 ;

separation of, ii. 21. Edochinum, ii. 345. Electrum, i. 107, 108, 114; ii. 103, etc. Elementary Gold, i. 301. Element, one only, ii. 1 1 : long life consists in equilibrium of elements, ii. 122. 390 The Hermetic and Alchemical Wrilings of Paracelsus. Element of the Sun, ii. 130. Elias the Artist, L 27. Eliphas Levi, i. 288. Elixir, notable, 335, 336 ; elixir at the white, ib. ; elixir from Luna, ib. ; what elixir is, ii. 99 ; a ferment, 69 «. ; conservation by, 71 ; quintessence the fourth elixir, 75 ; subtlety the fifth elixir, ib. ; propriety the sixth elixir, 76; elixir of Nature, 154; elixir of gold, ii. 333. Emerald, a defence of chastity, i. 17 ; whence derived, 17 «., 224, 243 ; quintessence of, il 24, 130. Emerald Table of Hermes, i. 19. Enigmas of alchemy, ii. 97 «. Enochdiani, ii. 340, 341, 344. Estimation, i. 173 ; ii. 120. Eternal Mystery, ii. 4. Evestra, i. 193 ; ii. 273, 274, 275. Exaltation, i. 152 «. Faith and Divination, i. 185 «. Falling Sickness, ii. iii, 128, 158. False Processes for the Stone, i. 55. Fel Vitri, i. 163. Ferments, secret of, i. 70.

Fire, purges imperfections, i. 4 ; especially in the prime substances, 4 n. ; generation of metals by fire, 5 n. ; virtues of, 42 «., i. 211 ; the subject of art, 74; not an element, 74 n. ; manifold nature of, 75 ; ultimate and primal matter of everything, go ; separation of elements from, ii. 20 ; its fourfold nature, 129 ; a twofold fire, 129. First Entities, ii. 84, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136. First Principle and ultimate matter, i. 91. Fishes, separation of elements from, ii. 18. Fistula Cassise, i, 137. Fixation, i. 153. Fixation of spirits, i. 309, 310. Fixed Augment, i. 326. Fixed Oil, i. 313. Fixed Substances, separation of elements from, ii. 20. Flaccum, ii. 41. Fleshly Substances, separation of elements Flos yEris, i. 199. Flos Cheiri, ii. 332, 333. Flying Eagle, i. 40, 286. Foundation of Philosophers, i. 321. Four Complexions, iL 126, 127. Four Elements, ii. 84. Four Humours, ii. 127 n. FranQois de Nation, i. 299. Fuligo Mercurii, i. 139, 149. Galen, i. 20, 36, 73 ; ii. 81 »., 82, 98, 99, 162, 169. Gamahea, i. 51 ; varieties of, 51 n.; ii. 295. Geber, i. 57, 59, 67, 298.

6 «. ; Jupiter and Cinnabar produce Sol, 15 ; Mercury of, 280, 281. Lac Virginis, i. 54, 55. Lavender, quintessence of, ii. 26. Lazurium, i. 143, 184 ; sapphires of, 224. Lead, properties when molten, i. 77 ». ; test of, 313. See Saturn. Lemures, i. 193. Leprosy, ii. 116, 128, 130. Leris, ii. 340. Leseolus, ii. 320. Life, a spiritual essence, i. 134 ; a veil of the three principles, 134 n. ; twofold in man, ib. ; definition of, ii. 323. Light without fire,, i. 316. Lili of Alchemy, i. 22 ; putrefaction of, 23 ; the subject of the Tincture, 24 ; desiccation of, 27 ; phenomena of, ib. Limaria, i. 249. Limbus of the Microcosm, i. 66. Litharge, i. 162 ; litharge of gold, 184 ; medical virtues of, ii. 201, 202, 203. Lixivium, i. 308, 310. Lizards, a process for Sol, i . 309. Long life, what it depends on, ii. 118. Lorinds, ii. 255, 258, 268. Loripides, ii. 261. Lotones, ii. 197. Luna and her properties, i. 8 ; constituents of, 9 n. ; Luna out of Venus, 27 ; Mercury of, 278 ; projection of, 313 ; digestion of, 316 ; gradation of, 319 ; Luna developed

into Sol, ib. ; augmentation of, ib. ; Luna and Venus, 335. Lunaria, i. 53. Lute of Hermes, ii. 46. Lydian Stone, i. 277. Macrocosm, quintessence of, ii. 36 ; 289. Magi, who they were, i. 49 ; classes of, 50 «. ; 51, 116. Magic, celestial and malefic, i. 50 n. ; its origin, 52; instruction of, ii. 294, 295, 296, 299-301, 313, 314. ^ Magistery, what it is, ii. 48 ; magistery and quintessence, 48, 49 ; Magistery of the Blood, 50 ; extraction of from metals, ib. ; from pearls, corals, and gems, 51 ; from Marchasites, 53 ; from fatty substances, 54 ; from growing things, 55 ; from blood, 57 ; 86. Magnalia of Nature, i. 29 ; ii. 340. Magnesia of the Philosophers, i. 117; Magnesium and Saturn produce Luna, i. 15 ; Magnesia and Antimony, i. 8. Magnet, i. 17 ! its power over diseases, 17 «■ ; phenomena of, 132 ; life of, 136 ; mortification of, 145 ; attractive virtues, ii. 59 ; medical uses of, 216. Magnum Opus, i. 201 n. Man the true quintessence, i. 52 n. ; created from the Limbus, 66 n, ; exemplar and type of all things, ii. 148 ; conception of, 291.

poral Mercury, 187, 320, 321, 323, 326; Mercury transmuted into Luna, 307 ; into Sol, 307, 308 ; into a stone, 308 ; coagulation of, 311 ; calcination of, 314 ; preparation with marcasites, ii. ; Mercury from Jupiter and Saturn, 320 ; Mercury of Saturn, 320, 324, 328 ; Mercury of all metals, 320 ; Mercury from all bodies, 320, 328 ; Mercury of the body, 323, 324, 325, 326, 329, 330, 331, 332 ; Mercury of Jupiter, 326, 333 ; Mercury of Luna, 328, 329, 333 ; metals connected with Mercury, 318 ; Mercury of Sol or Luna, 330 ; extraction of Mercury of the Moon, 332 ; water of Mercury, 334 ; malleable Mercury, 336 ; fixation of, ii. ; Mercury of life, ii. 29, 30, 50, 90 ; the third arcanum, 38, 43 ; medical uses of, 230. See alio i. 19s, i. 36, i. 288, i. 293; ii. 125 «., 336 ; Mercurial water the first beginning of metals, i. 90. Mesne, ii. 99, 156. Metals, not devoid of life, i. 117 «. ; generation of, 125, 248 ; regeneration of, 126 ; radical moisture of, 290 ; transmuted into stones, i. 16. n. ; contains all minerals, ii. See also ii. 289, 318.

Mineral Menstruum, i. 299. Minerals, method of seeking, i. 15 ; ultimate matter of, 90 ; minerals out of arsenic, 315 ; augmentation of, ii. ; antimoniacal minerals, ii. ; reduction of the minera, ii. Minium, i. 143 ; ii. 124. Mixture, spiritual mixture and communion of the Dietals, i. 9. Monstrous Births, i. 121, 122. Monstrous growths, i. 173, etc. Moon, digestion of, i. 315 ; quintessence of, ii. 26. Morsus Diaboli, i. 189. Mumia, i. 131 ; mumia and man, 131 «. ; mumia and balsam, ii.; mumia and sweet Mercury, 169 ; exlraclion of mumia, ii. 337- Must, magistery of, ii. 56. Mysterium Magnum, i. 201 «. Natural Magic, ii. 252. Necromancy, i. 171 ; necromancy and nigto- mancy, 171 «., 190, 193. Nedeon, i. 233. Nenuphar, i. 230 ; ii. 174. Nesdar, ii. 255. Nesva, i. 2a Neufarini, ii. 254. New Birth, necessity of, i. 20. Nigromancy, ii. 294, 295, 296, 303. Nitre, i. 100, 197. Nymphs, ii. 253, 255, 258, 271, 273, 274, 340. Oil of Coral, ii. 143. Oil of Jupiter, ii. 141. Oil of Marchasite, ii. 142. • Oil of Mars, ii. 35, 140. Oil and Salt of Pearls, ii. 144. Oil of the Philosophers, i. 314.

Oil of Salt, ii. 143. Oil of Saturn, ii. 140. Oil of Silver, ii. 140. Oil of the Sun, i. 38 ; ii. 28. Oleaginous substances, separation of elements from, ii. 17. Oleum Laterinum, ii. 70Olympian Spirit, i. 116. Ophioglossum, i. 189. Orchis, set Satyrion. Orpiment, medical uses of, ii. 211, 212. Paracelsus, sprung from Helvetia, i. 19 ; a prince of philosophy and medicine, ib. ; chosen by God, 20 ; monarch of arcana, 21 ; his experiments in Istria, 29 ; born of Nature, 39 ; his academia, 96 ; see also i. 285; ii. 163, 170. Paradise, fruits of, i. 228 ; no death in Paradise, ii. 115, 116. Passage of the Red Sea, i. 298. Part with Pait, i. 55, 59, 164, 166, 312. Pearl, not a stone, i. 17 ; produces milk in women, 17 »., 156; special virtues of, ii. 53 ; magistery of, 52, Perpetual Water, i. 319. Persian Fire, i. 259, 269. Phantasy, i, 173 ; li. 296, 313. Philosophers' Egg, ii. 93. Philosophers' Stone, ii. 29 ; the second arcanum, ii. 40, 100. Philosophers' Tree, i. 129. Philosophi'; Man, i. 65. Philosophical Stone, i. 294. Philosophic Sun, i. 71. Phoenix and Iliasler, i. 40 «., 286.

Physical Stone, i. 301, 303. Plato, i. 56 ; ii. 155. Poison, concealed in all things, ii. 160 ; grades of poison, ii. 189 ; nature and essence of, 237 ; alchemy of poison, 238 ; entity of poison, 239 ; the natural alchemist as a separator of poison, 241. Ponderations, magical art of, i. 71. Potable Gold, il 28, 51, 106, 130. Potable Silver, ii. 51. Precious Water, i. 319. Primal Matter, ii. 29 ; the first arcanum, 39, 40, 125 ; ii. 125. Promised Land, entrance into, i. 298. Purging, simples for, ii. 188. Putrefaction, the beginning of generation, i. 120 ; many kinds of, 121, 153 ; putrefaction and transmutation, ii 279. Pyromancy, i. 171, 190, 193; ii. 297. Quicksilver, generation of, i. 44 ». ; how rendered ductile, ib. Quintessence, i. 5 ; its principle, 5 n. ; the divine quintessence, 52 j correction of, ii. 22 ; formula of, 28 ; quintessence from metals, 30 ; from marcasites, 3 1 ; from salts, ib. ; from stones, gems, and pearls, 32 ; from growing things, 33, 334 ; from spices, 34 ; from eatables and drinkables, 35, 85 ; quintessence of oil, 139 ; of silver, 140; of antimony, 141.

Quince, quintessence of, ii. 41. Quintessence of the Sun, L 199; ii. 12. Radical Moisture, l 290; ii. 125, 126, 128, 132. Raymond Lully, i. 53, 67, 299 ; ii. 335. Recipes, composition of, ii. 194; piescription of, 196. Rector of Man, ii. 253 n. Red Lion, 1. 22 ; sliort way to, 23 ; rosecoloured' blood of, 25 ; to be sought in the East, 27 ; process on, 37. Red Oil for fixing Luna and Sol, i. 318. Reduction, i. 167, 326. ReloUea, ii. 176, 179, 181. Resin of the Earth, i. 265. Rhasis, i. 95 ; ii. 156. Richard of England, i. 67. Roger Bacon, L 299. Royal Cement, i. 42 ; ii. 29 «. Ruby, i 17, 224 ; ii. 130. Rude Stone, i. 297. Saffron, quintessence of, ii. 127 »., 130. Sal Ammoniac, i. 195, 199; iL 59. Sal Fluxum, L 163. Sal Gemmae, L 261 ; ii. 223. ,Sal Nitri, ii. 224. Sal Palla, i. 215. Sal Peregrinorum, ii. 223. Sal Petrae, i. 261. Sal Stiriatus, I 261. Sal Terrse, i. 261. Salt, corrects Luna, I 43 ; extracted out of urine, 55, 261 ; duplex, 260 ; elixir of, i''. 73 ; fixation of salts, i. 3:0 ; see also i. 197, 224 ; ii. 132.

Serapio, i. 26 ; ii. 156. Shadows, art of, i. 185. Sigillum Barise, ii. 79. Sign, what it is, i. 37. Signature, ii. 268, 294, 295, 296, 304. Silver, sulphur of, i. 266 ; medical virtues of, ii. 226, 227. Sleep, i. 186 K. Sol, a royal metal, i. 9 ; pure fire, 10 ; liquefaction of, ii. ; purity of fire of, II ; incorruptible in fire, ii. ; threefold essence of, ii. ; gold and the Sun, ii. ; Sol out of Luna, 27 ; earth of red Sol, 39 ; sulphur of Sol, ii. ; spirit or tincture of, 75 ; Sol the body of Mercury, 80 ; fixes Mercury, ii. ; resin of, 144 ; calx cf, 147 ; quintessence of, ii. 130; oil of, ii. Sol and Luna, the matter of the Stone, i. 65. Somnambulism, i. 186 n. Sons of spagyric art, i. 20 ; sons of the Doctrine, ii. 107. Sophia and Philosophy, i. 95. Southern Star, i. 36. Sovereign Artist, i. 295. Spagjria, i. 17 ». Spagyric Art, i. 157. Spagyric Books, i. 19. Spagyric Magisleiy, i. 28 ; spagyric generation, i. 284. Spectres, ii. 296, 313. Speculation, ii. 296, 313. Specifics, how produced, ii. 59 ; odoriferous, 60 ; anodyne, 62 ; diaphoretic, 63 ; attractive, 64 ; styptic, 65 ; corrosive, 66 ; specific of the matrix, 67.

Sperm of the Three Principles, ii. 87, Sphere of Saturn, i. 298. Sphere of the Sun, i. 36. Spirit of God, i. 295. Spirit of Life, ii. T26, 127 n. Spirits, dissolution of, i. 310 ; tincture of, ib.; spirit of wine, ii. 29 «. Spirit Voice, i. 186 n. Spots, remedy against, ii. 79. Stars and their influence, i. 174, 175 ; ii. 149, 150, 285, 286, 287. Stats of metals, i. 186, 187. Star of the Microcosm, i. 116. Stone of the Philosophers, i. 301 ; separation of the Stone, ii. 104 ; use of, 105 ; a perfect balsam, 96. Stones, separation of elements from, ii. 17. Sublimation, i. 151, 197. Sulphur, its varieties, i. 5 «. ; fire of, 27 ; not the beginning of metals, 90 ; a resin of the earth, 105 ; animated sulphur, ib. ; embryonated, ib. ; quintessence of, 126 ; reverberated, ib. ; sulphur in wood, 270 ; crude sulphur, 272 ; arsenic in sulphur, 273 ; sulphur of the philosophers, 249, 291 ; sulphur of Nature, 297 ; sulphur vive, i. 33 ; sulphur of Sol, i. 39 ; sulphur of cinnabar, 40 ; red sulphur of the philosophers, 51 ;. sulphur transmuted into Sol, 308; how reddened, 311 ; note concerning sulphur, 236 ; sulphureous minerals, 311; first entity of, ii. 132; medical virtues of, 212, 213. See also

ii. 137. 336Supercelestial Marriage of the Soul, i. 61. Superstitions, ii. 121. Sweetness, elixir of, ii. 73, 74. Sydenia, i. 189. Sylphs, i. 125. Sylvans, i. 193. Syrens, ii. 255, 271. Talc, i. 136, 246, 27s ; medical uses of, ii. 206. Tartar, oil of, 310, 330 ; dissolution of, 310 ; magistery and essence of, ii. 130 ; transmutation of, 158. Temperaments, ii. ill. Tereniabin, i. 193. Theriaca, ii. 103. Thronus, ii. 74. Time of the Work, i. 40. Tin, medical virtues of, ii. 227. Tincture, matter ^of, i. 22 ; early process of, 24 ; magistery of, 25 ; method of attaining, 26 J a universal medicine, 29 ; as a ' medicine, 41 ; tincture of gold, 76 k. ; how tincture is defined, 155 ; two. tinctures in man, 155 «. ; how tinctures operate, 156 ; tincture nf the philosophers, 186 ; tinctures the fourth arcanum, ii. 39, 45. See also i. 276. Tithyraal, a coagulation of Mercury, i. 54. Transmutation, i. 28 ; ii. 279. Transmutation of metals, time of, i. 118. Trevisan, Bernard, i. 299. Turba Philosophorum, i. 279. Turbith, i. 229 ; ii. 60. Tuthia, preparation of, i. 309 ; medical uses of, ii. 205.

Tyrian remedy, ii. 1 13. Ulcer, remedy for, ii. 79. Uncertain Arts, ii. 294, 295, 297, 305-308. Urine, a resolved salt, i. 100, 189, 199, 260, 262, 327, 328 ; ii. 59. Uroscopy, ii. 152. Uterus, Spagyric, i. 284. Vase of the Philosophers, i. 298. Venitian Art, i. 55. Venter Equinus, i. 75, 121, 124, 148, 150, 157; Venus, properties of, i. 7 ; the first metal generated by Archeus, 7 «. ; Venus out of Saturn, 27 ; experiment of Paracelsus, 29 ; counterfeits of, 58 ; many tinctures from, 78 «. ; mercury of, 279 ; quintessence of, ii. 26, 35 ; crocus of, 35 ; flowers of, 60 ; see also i. 292. Verdigris from copper, i. 141. Vessel of Philosophers, i. 68, 69. Vinum Aceti, i. 142. Vinum Ardens, i. 136, 156 ; ii. 50, 52, 55, 70. Virgil, i. 148; Virgil's Bell, Ii6. Visions, ii. 296, 313. Vitriol, varieties of, i. 38 n, ; nobility of, 60 ; arcanum of, 60 «. ; imperfection of, 61 ; viridity of, 61 n. ; diagnosis of, ib. ; species of, 102 ; tests of, 103 ; vitriol grillus, 104 ; vitriol from Venus, ii. ; spagyric vitriol in verdigris, it. ; green vitriol, 278 ; vitriol of Nature, 300. See also i. 195, 199, 224, 266. Medical uses of, ii. 219, 220, 221, 231, 232 ; oil of red vitriol, 235 ; white and green oil of vitriol, 236.

Vitriolated Oil in alchemy, i. loi . Vulcan, art of, i. 22 ; office of, 22 «., 263, 266, 277 ; ii. 96. Vulgar Gold, i. 301. Water, an element, i. 91 ; mother, seed, and root of all metals, 92 ; the first matter of minerals, 95 ; contains only Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, 231, 243; water giving weight to Sol and Luna, 313 ; water fixing Mercury, 316 ; separation of elements from water, ii. 19, 21 ; water of life, 28 ; water of salt, 29 h. Weight, in projection, i. 63 ; weight of the ferment, 70 ; artificial weight, 71. White Eagle, i. 22 ; gluten of, 35 ; to be sought in the south, 27. White and Red, process for, i. 316, 317. Whitening, mode of, i. 313. Winckelstein, John, of Friburg, i. 194. Wine, Magistery of, ii. 55, 56. Wounds, remedy for, ii. 78- Xylobalsamum, ii. 337. Xylohebenus, ii. 320. Yhadum, ) > o • jt Ysopaic Art, i. 266. Zedoch, i. 217, 218, 219. 220. Zinc, i. 136, 254. 314. Zodiac, celestial and human, ii. 148 «. JAMES ELLIOTT AND CO. TEMPLE CHAMBERS, FALCON COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C. Temple Chambers, Falcon Court, Fleet Street, London, E.G.,

Produced under the Editorship of Mr. ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, Author of " The Real History of the Rosicmcictm" ; " Lims of Alcliemysiical Philosophers"; " The Occult Sciences " ; " The Mysteries a/ Magic" etc. In two volumes, small quarto, cloth extra, gilt; pp. xii., 358, and viii., 322. Restored and enlarged, most faithfully instructing all. the Disciples of the Sopho-Spagyric Art how that Greatest and Truest Medicine of the Philosopher's Stone may be found and held. Now first done into English from the rare Latin original, published at Frankfort in the year 1678. The illustrations reproduced in fac-simile by a This curious storehouse of Hermetic Science comprises twenty-two choice treatises on the Mysteries of Alchemy, and the composition of the Medicine of the Philosophers, namely : — The Golden Treatise concerning the Philosopher's Stone. The Golden Age come back. The Sophie Hydrolith, or Water Stone of the Wise. The De-nonstration of Nature. A Philosophical Summary. The Path of the only Truth. The Glory of the World, or Table of Paradise. The Generalion of Metals. The Bookof Alze. Figures and Emblems concerning the Philosopher's Stone. The Practice and Keys of Basil Valentine. The Ordinal of Alchemy. The Testament of John Cremer, sometime Abbot of

Westminster. The New Light of Alchemy. The Sulphur of the Philosophers. An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King. A Subtle Allegory concerning the Secrets of Chemistry. The Metamorphosis of Metals. A Short Guide to the Celestial Ruby. The Fount of Chemical Truth. The Golden Calf. The All-Wise Doorkeeper. While affording to the modern student of Hermetic Doctrines a unique opportunity of acquiring in English a representative collection of the chief alchemical writers, this edition of The Hermetic Museum claims consideration at the hands of the historian and archaeologist as a contribution of real value to the early history of chemistry. The translation is the work of a gentleman who has had a live-long acquaintance with alchemical literature, and has been subjected to careful revision by another expert in Hermetic antiquities. The original edition of this work, under the title of Museum Hermettcum, was published at Frankfort in 1625, and contained only nine treatises. The edition of 1678, from which the present translation has been made, is of incomparably more value to the student, although, scarce as it is, it is not so uncommon as the first, which is seldom or never with. Some particulars concerning both editions — the Museum Hermettcum and the Museum Hermettcum Reformatum et Amplificatum — -will be found in the alchemical catalogue of Lenglet du Fresnoy.

from its pyrites (sulphur), by first of all transforming it into vitriol of copper (sulphate of copper), with the help of moist air, and afterwards plunging a bar of iron into the aqueous dissolution of this product. This operation, which Basil Valentine was the first to describe, was often profitably made use of by alchemists at a later date ; but, not understanding the fact of the precipitation of metallic copper, they mistook it for a transmutation of iron into copper, or at least for a commencement of a transmutation which could be