Inner Garden Alchemical Dictionary C

Alchemical Dictionary - C

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

CABABUS: Rulandus: i.e., a vase holding three Chores (? cubic feet). Also a lid or cover of a pan.
CABALA, CABALIA: Rulandus: Cabalistic Art is a most secret science which is affirmed to have been made known in a divine manner to Moses at the same time as the written law; it reveals to us the doctrine of the Messiah of God; it constitutes a bond of friendship between angels and the men who have been instructed in it; and it gives knowledge of all natural things. It also illuminates the mind with a divine light, and drives all darkness therefrom. The name is of Hebrew origin; in Latin it is called a Reception. It is that more secret and true exposition, forbidden to be set down in writing, which Moses divinely received upon the Mount, together with that other law which was afterwards given in writing to the people of Israel. It was handed down from generation to generation under the seal of an oath lest the divine mysteries made known to the profane multitude might be degraded or misused. This science was diligently studied by the Persians, as appears by the name which was given to their wise men. For they called their priests and those men among them who were intrepid explorers of secret things by the name of Magi. Such were those three wise men who came from the East to Bethlehem that they might adore Christ. They were not kings, as it is imagined by the vulgar and ignorant. Much upon these matters has been written by our own Reuchlin, by the Italian Mirandula, and by Petrus Galatinus. Indeed, Galatinus asserts that by means of this Cabala the ancient Rabbins came to the knowledge of the Trinity, and of Christ the Son of God.
Therefore this art is not folly in the opinion of many persons, but a certain and heavenly science, through which Theophrastus, as he himself tells us, developed his own doctrine by God's mercy; nor has it anything in connection with evil spirits, though this has been calumniously ascribed to it by its envious enemies. At the same time, I grant that in the hands of a number of persons it has, like other arts, fallen into abuse. For Theophrastus says that the Jews have done nothing but degenerate, and as in the doctrine of God, so in this science. Whence the Cabala has come to be divided into a true science and a false art. In addition, there is the literal Cabala which must be numbered among deceptive subtleties, more especially when it does not proceed from a Hebrew source. The true Cabala has its foundation in the Holy Scriptures.
CABALA: Rulandus: is a secret art bestowed by God upon Moses, which he afterwards, not by means of writing, but orally, handed down to his posterity; and these by knowledge of the Divine Essence can know the properties of all creatures in a wonderful manner, and use it to their own profit and that of others.
CABALATER: Rulandus: is Nitric Salt.
CABEBI: Rulandus: i.e., Iron Filing.
CABEL: Rulandus: is Dung.
CABILLI, CABALES
LEMURES: Rulandus: are the astral bodies of men, who die immaturely, and before they have accomplished their natural course of life. They are supposed to wander over the earth until they have reached the proper term of their existence, so that what they should have lived out corporeally, they now live out spiritually, if it be right in God's sight to believe so, and indeed it can be ascertained from the Holy Scriptures that such a view is not opposed to true Christian religion; now in those Scriptures is to be sought the touch-stone by which we are enabled to discern and condemn everything which is not of the true gold of the Gospel.
CACEDONIUM TARTARUM: Rulandus: Actually a species of Tartar, but used to signify an offending matter in the human body, which may apparently be either stone or sand in the bladder, or an alburninous concretion.
CACIA FERREA: Rulandus: is an iron screw.
CACHIMIA: Rulandus: is a white argentiferous Chalk.
CACHIMIEN: Rulandus: are, as it were, the refuse of flesh, of feeble power, the enemy and robber of metals ; nothing can be made of them. Like Marcasite, Red Sun and White Moon-Red Pyrites and White Cobalt-Tutty is the dross of copper Bell-Metal. Perfect and imperfect Arsenical Sulphur in the body of the Mercurial Talc; red, white, and yellow in the body of the Salt. Accordingly, Theophrastus on Minerals writes that Bismuth, Marcasite, etc., are spirits produced by mixture of Venus and Mercury. Bismuth has an earthly Sulphur of Mercurial nature. Marcasites are found in all grades, and are,as it were, a superfluity of metal. The material is too abundant, and cannot become metal when the Archaeus differentiates. Accordingly, the Cachimien are imperfect metals, sports, monstrosities. There is more Venus and Mercury in the Cachimiera; it is more salt, and is a more fixed and excellent digest than Marcasite.
CADARIA: Rulandus: is Tutty.
CADMIA: Rulandus: is of two kinds, native and manufactured.
Native Cadmia is also of two kinds: one which is found in mountains and rivers, and sometimes in torrents. I saw Cadmia sometime since which was obtained from the torrents of Westphalia, of which possibly Galenus has written. Others maintain that it is the gem Iris, but I neither wish nor would venture to affirm anything hastily in this matter. The other native Cadmia is found in metallic mines, fossile and petrine, as may be seen at the mine called Verona. It is this stone which the Germans call Kobalt, from the name of the demon who formerly haunted houses, as we see in Saxony (? Kobolds, a house-dwelling spirit of German folk lore). Pliny calls it Copper-Stone. And this stone or native Cadmia, fossile Cobalt, does not much differ from Pyrites or Marcasite, and is indeed very similar. The liquids out of which Pyrites and Silver are obtained are found compactly joined together in one body, and it is the same with native Cadmia. There are some who consider it identical with Pyrites because where there is one usually there is the other also, or because of this similarity in deposition. There are also persons who distinguish them, because Cadmia is so powerfully corrosive that it eats away the feet and hands of the miners, while Pyrites has little corrosive power. Hence Pliny well remarks (l. 34, c. 10), that the stone Cobalt, from which Copper is obtained is of itself useless as medicine, but that it can be rendered useful by combination with Cadmia. As regards colour, Cobalt, or native fossile Cadmia, is found in three ways in the mines:
1. Black Cobalt, which seems to have been first known to the Germans, for so we call those black imps who are seen in houses, and especially in kitchens, and after these perhaps, on account of its colour, we have named this metal. If this etymology be rejected, I would say that it derives the identity of name from some fabulous coincidence.
2. Ashen-grey Cobalt. These two species are the most common.
3. Iron-grey. This is not so common. I met with it formerly in those ancient mines of Thuringia which are situated at the extreme north. Whatsoever substances may be obtained from this, it abounds much more in silver than does Pyrites. Dioscorides was unacquainted with this species, as appears from these words in his 1. 20, c. 40. There are not wanting persons who believe that Cadmia is found in stone quarries, but it is through a false knowledge of stones. He describes how Cadmia is extracted from a mountain in Cyprus, which is covered to its base with the burnt stone called Pyrites ; and after how it differs from the known stones which are falsely called Cadmia, namely, in weight, scent, and taste; in concreteness, in manner of combination, in mode of burning, and in colour. But this native fossile Cadmia, from the burnt Pyrites in Cyprus, is now unknown, so far as I can say, while, on the other hand, our own fossile Cadmias were unknown to him.

The stones which are known to us by the erroneous name of Cadmia, i.e., which we know of, but are falsely so called, are found in many places in our mines. They are sterile, and hence have no corrosive quality. Simple men, Ignorant in the matter, have taken them for true Cadmia, and have grievously erred. For the rest, it should be noted that there is another stone which must be distinguished from true Cadmia; it is by some called Cadmia earth, and the stone Calamine. In certain places, by reason of its weakness; in others, on account of weight, it is possible to take it for true Cadmia. True native Cadmia is at the present day generally unknown in our laboratories, as, indeed, is all manufactured Cadmia, except Botryites, which the Arabs call Tutty, and that Alexandine Cadmia called hard or solid Tutty. True Botryites Cadmia (that is, clustering like grapes), is, however, different from Tutty, as the Arabs affirm with Serapion. For Tutty is Orpine (or Spodion), but it may be, I grant, used as a substitute for Tutty, if prepared, as Serapion witnesses. Spodion, and not Tutty, is mentioned by Dioscorides, lest he should record the same thing twice. In fine, that which the Arabs call Tutty, the Greeks call Pompholyx, and we Spodion. It is an error, not in qualities, but matters. For they differ with the locality in which they are made. When made in the mouths of the furnaces it is called Capnitis (a kind of jasper or chrysolite); when made on the top it is called Pompholyx. Pliny 1. 34, c. 1), says that copper is made from the cuprine stone called Cadmia, celebrated formerly in Asia and Campania. But he also says that it was found in his time in the country of Bergamus and in the German province. Here I judge that Pliny is simply speaking of our Cadmia, and galls it a cuprine stone. Hence it appears that in the time of Pliny, Cadmia was found in our country. Possibly it was at a still more distant period that the Germans began to work their mines. Their iron and brass mines are most ancient. It was afterwards, under Otho the Great, that the mines of black lead were opened up, and after a long interval those of silver. Cornelius Tacitus emphatically states that the Germans of old possessed neither gold nor silver, much less mines of those metals. And now it has come to pass that our alma mater has far surpassed other places in the abundance of all species of metals.
Praise to the good and great God for ever!
Manufactured Cadmia.
Manufactured Cadmia is the substance and finest ash of pyrites, or of another metallic ore very similar to pyrites, translated to or ejected upon the sides or topmost roofs of the furnaces, as Dioscorides testifies (1. 5, c. 40) when he says that Cadmia is derived from copper burning in furnaces, ejected in casting together with soot, and collected on the sides and tops. Others define manufactured Cadmia after this manner: Manufactured Cadmia is a substance which is obtained when coherent corpuscules are rejected from copper by expulsion through the summits of the furnaces, and collect together in globular masses, one of which will sometimes contain either one, two, or a number of species. This is a true definition, and they who make it give Cadmia the name of Acestida. At the same time we would say that Cadmia is either ash of Copper or of some other metal. The best is obtained from copper. That which comes from other metals, and even from gold, is of no moment. It is also made from silver, and this quality is whiter and less heavy than the others, and it is not at all like the cuprine species. By copper we would in this place understand pyrites, of which the best quality produces Cadmia in coction.
The Cadmia of Goslaria is the finest, containing not only silver or lead, but all other metals. When the pyrites is pure it produces Placodis and Botryitis; when mixed with other substances, then Cadmia alone is obtained. Dioscorides praises the Cuprine and Botryitis. There are many species of manufactured Cadmia, some of which are treated of by Dioscorides and some by other writers; they differ with the places in which they are made, and they differ also in shape, as Dioscorides teaches, and his interpreter Pliny. As these species can be understood by a child, we subjoin them in order.
Species of Manufactured Cadmia.
1. Botryitis, like a cluster of grapes, dense in appearance, but not very heavy, and liable to decrease in weight, orpine in colour, ashen, and cuprine. This and onychitis, subsequently described, are useful in medicaments for the eyes. There is also another botryitis, which was possibly unknown to Dioscorides, and is made either in round coals or spear-shaped; for when the little flames play round the furnace, then botryitis is deposited, and afterwards collected. This kind is called Alexandrian Cadmia, because in that place many seek to make it; it is also called solid Tutty, and it is very like the barks of certain trees. It is produced by sublimation in the manufacture of brass, and is of two kinds
Alexandrine and Arabian Tutty.
2. Onichitis, similar to the stone onyx, blue on the outside, white and veined within, like that which, according to Dioscorides, was mined out of old metallic ore. In which place, do not understand that the mines were old themselves, but that the metals had been long deposited by nature. The reference is to the vast ancient stags, now again being melted; it is found in these.
3. Placodis, i.e., covered with a crust or shell. Among this species is the variety called tinctured or zoned, which is adorned with many rings.
4. Ostracitis, thin, black, crusted with burnt earth.
5. Capnitis, i.e., of the furnace, or volatile; it is very like Spodion (orpine matter) or Pompholyx (arsenic). It is found in the mouths of furnaces, and there is little difference in its varieties ; they are materially the same. Capnitis, Cadmia, and Arsenic possess the same qualities, but they can be distinguished by the places where they are made. The species under notice is good for plasters, and all are hot and astringent, in the same way that pyrites is styptic, as Serapion affirms. It is their nature to heal open sores, to cleanse the unclean, to remove fleshy excrescences, to dry up superfluous humours of the body, to help in the formation of skin, etc. As these species of Cadmia are exceedingly hot and dry, they are operated on with fire and washed in special ways set forth by Dioscorides, so that they may be useful in plasters and other medicaments. Would that our own physicians, more especially surgeons, did not ignore the virtues of Cadmia, but brought it once again into use! Concerning these manufactured Cadmias consult Pliny (1. 34, c. 10), where he says: Cadmia is begotten in furnaces, whence its name of Furnace Cadmia; it is carried up with the flames, and by a gentle breath or wind, being a substance disengaged from the matter in the furnace; it adheres to the top or sides, according to its lightness.
1. The lightest is deposited at the mouth of the furnace, and in its exceeding lightness is similar to ashes. It is called Capnitis.
2. Botryites, which is of better quality, is of two colours
ashen, the inferior of the two, and that approaching purple, which is the superior kind. This is found in the interior of the furnace-roof.
3. That which is deposited on the sides of the furnace and cannot ascend to the top on account of its heaviness; this is crusty Placitis, of which there are also two species-Onychitis, outwardly almost blue, and within spotted like the onyx
Ostracitis, which is wholly black, the most powerful of Cadmias, and useful for wounds. All Cadmia produced in the furnaces where Copper is smelted is the best kind. So far Pliny.
For the rest, how Cadmia is cleansed, and how treated with fire, may be learnt from the same place in Pliny. See also Galenus, Avicenna, and others. Certain writers who were utterly ignorant upon these subjects, confound all the varieties together in a chaotic heap, and in a way which I am ashamed to behold or read. This has come to pass through the neglect of the thing itself, and through barren disputes over words. The excellent Simon de Janua says that the name Cadmia may be applied to three substances:
1. To the fumes which arise from certain metals, such as gold, silver, and copper. And this is the true manufactured Cadmia of which we have been here treating.
2. To the stone Calamine, vulgarly called Marcasite. And here this most excellent writer is ignorant that Calamine is one thing, while Marcasite is another, and is that Pyrites from which copper is obtained; Rulandus: a species of native Cadmia which we call Cobalt. From this Pyrites also the best manufactured Cadmia is made.
3. That which is found in mines of metals, and especially in copper mines. And this is the native Cadmia of which we have treated. It will be seen how confused this classification is, and how the same thing is said twice over.
To sum up: our native fossile Cadmia is our Cobalt, with its several species. But the best manufactured Cadmia is made in furnaces from pyrites, that is marcasite; in other words, it is simply made from copper, as Dioscorides teaches. But its name varies with the place where it is manufactured, and with its form and its colour.
Cadmia is duplex:
1. Native: In mountains and rivers. Described by Galenus. Said to be the German Iris. Fossile, from mines. Otherwise, Cobalt. If this there are three kinds: 1. Black, 2. Grey-ashen, 3. Iron colour.
2. Manufactured: 1. Acestis; 2. Like ashes and exceedingly light. Derived from: 1. Copper, 2. Silver, 3. Other metals, such as gold. Of these there are also various species which differwith the locality where they are made, and are also distinguished by their appearance: 1. Btyrites, i.e., clustered like graes; now falsely called Tutty. This is also duplex; Rulandus: one of an orpine colour, the other (manufactured) like ashes. Alexandrine, which occurs by chance I coals, and is made by art in iron tubes; 2. Oninchitis; 3. Ostracitis; 4. Placodis and Planitis; 5. Capnitis, which is made in the mouth of the furnace. Also Pompholyx, i.e., Arsenic.
Furnace Cadmia.
1. Furnace Cadmia, obtained from the shaft of the furnace, differs from native Cadmia, in the ways hereinafter to be shown.
2. White Cadmia is a poisonous matter which sticks to the walls of the furnace, being given off by metals when they are burnt or melted.
3. Yellow Cadmia.
4. Red Cadmia.
5. Grey Cadmia.
6. Finest Cadmia, made in copper furnaces from pyrites, or metallic Cadmia.
7. That which sticks to the walls of the furnace where copper ore is smelted.
8. That which sticks to the walls of the furnace where silver is smelted.
9. That which sticks to the walls of a furnace where gold ore is smelted.
10. That which is obtained from furnaces of White Lead.
11. Impure furnace Cadmia, or slag.
12. Containing silver.
13. Containing gold.
14. Cadmia of Copper, of which various species are found in our metals, to which also Dioscorides and other Greeks gave names borrowed from their shape.
15. Crusted Cadmia.
16. Zoned Cadmia, having bands or lines encircling it.
17. Onychitis, of various colours, similar to the veins of the onyx.
18. Ostracitis or Testacea, which scarcely sticks to the furnace wall.
19. Botryitis, in clusters like grapes, of a grey colour, hanging from the sides of the furnace, as grapes from a vine.
20. Black Botrytis, having thin copper-colored plates.
21. Stalactical Cadmia, or Cadmia concreted like icicles.
22. Alexandrine Cadmia, now used in our workshops
23. Cadmia which sticks to the roof of the furnace.
24. Sublimed Cadmia.
25. Atramental Cadmia.
Cadmia of Metals, or Mined Cadmia.
1. Metallic Cadmia is abundantly mined in the veins of Bohemia and Misnia. It is called by our metallurgists Cobalt, which name is also given to the imps of the mines, for what reason is beyond the scope of our inquiry.
2. Mined Cadmia, which the metallurgist digs up in Lower Germany, in Westphalia. By us it is called the Stone Calamine.
3. Mined Calamine, or Cadmia of red colour, which has not been subjected to fire.
4. Well-burnt Cadmia, melted fourteen times, and then used for tinging other metals.
5. Purest soft Cadmia or Calamine.
6. A naturally grey Cobalt.
7. Crusty Cadmia, shaped like a head.
8. A Sulphureous Cobalt which burns very readily.
9. Cadmia on which there is a rude, red transparent silver.
10. Black Cobalt, in the block.
11. Very hard grey Cadmia.
12. Crusty, iron-coloured Cadmia.
13. Heavy, brittle, grey Cadmia.
14. Hard, grey Cadmia.
15. Light, grey Cadmia.
16. Light Cadmia, similar to pure, native grey lead, easily broken into small pieces with a hammer. A brittle Cobalt, like a solid bismuth.
17. Hard Bismuth, like polished iron.
18. Combined with grey lead.
19. Mined Cadmia, found in grape-like clusters in the mountains and torrents of Westphalia.
20. Sulphureous.
21. Bituminous.
22. Containing gold.
23. Shaped like a bare head.
24. Concave, full of very fine dust
25. Fluidic Cobalt, from which a poisonous sap exudes continually.
26. Fluidic Cobalt, from which an acrid yellow sap continually exudes.
CADMIA: Rulandus: White Liquor.
CADMIA ACINOSA: Rulandus: i.e., Tutty.
CADMIA CYPRIA: Rulandus: Cuprine Calamine.
CAL: Rulandus: Green Arsenic. Item, Vinegar.
CALAMINA: Rulandus: i.e., the Stone Calamine.
CALAMUS, CANNA, CANNUTUM: Rulandus: A Reed.
CALCADINUM: Rulandus: Vitriol.
CALCADIS, AL, SAL ALKALI: Rulandus: Names of White Vitriol.
CALCANTHOS
CALCANTHUM: Rulandus: Signifies: 1. Flower of Copper. 2. Calcitis, a kin of Vitriol. 3. Vitriol. 4. Burnt Copper. 5. Green Vitriol, generated and nourished in powder of Atrament. It melts in salt, and congeals in cold. If red, water prevails; if green, copper preponderates.
The Species of Chalcanthum are:
1. Chalcitis, i.e., Colcothar, Zeg, or Green Zeg.
2. Misy: Native, having affinity with gold. Manufactured, when Chalcanthum is changed into Chalcitis.
3. Melanteria, Shoemakers? Wax: 1. Mined, 2. Maltria or Melatria found in the tunnels of mines, 3. Bitria, found at the mouth of mines. The Arabs say that these are species of Colcothar, i.e., Chalcitis.
4. Sory: 1. Egyptian, 2. Lybian, 3. Spanish, 4. Cyprian.
5. Diphyrygis of two kinds: Native, of which we have two species. Manufactured: Dross of Copper. Burnt Pyrites.
CALCANTUM
CALCADIS: Rulandus: A kind of Atrament.
CALCATON: Rulandus: i.e., a Trochish of Arsenic.
CALCITHEOS: Rulandus: Copperust. Item, Marcasite.
CALCATA: Rulandus: i.e., Citrine Atrament.
CALCATAR, COLCOTAR: Rulandus: Ruby Atrament.
CALCITEOSA
CALCITHEOS: Rulandus: i.e., Litharge.
CALCITHOS: Rulandus: i.e., Green Copper.
CALCEUS SIPHONUM: Rulandus: Pump-handle.
CALCIDUM: Rulandus: An Arsenical Medicament.
CALCINATIO: Rulandus: When the matter is like snow-white calx, full of fire and thirst. And this is the Dragon, who drinks up the water therein. He dies and bursts. This is the division between body and soul, pale or white and dead. Then comes the resurrection and the life, through the Red.
Calcination of Bodies is Combustion, which takes place in a strong heat; or it is the solution of coagulated matters into Calx. It is of two kinds: that of Corrosion and of Ignition.
Calcination by dry corrosion is when dry corroding substances are added, instead of moisture, to the calcining matters, and are calcined thereby. It is cementing and commingling.
Calcination by vaporous corrosion is when the metallic bodies, reduced into thin plates, are calcined by an acrid and corroding smoke. But the methods of this vaporous calcination are several. Sometimes the laminated bodies are suspended over aqua fonts, sometimes over the recrement of the wine-press. Sometimes, especially with the nobler metals, the fragile parts are reduced and brought to powder by the vapour of melted lead or quicksilver; sometimes other modes are used which it would be too long to recount. Note: To reduce Chalybs into a subtle condition by a vaporous corrosion, I proceed thus. In the first place, I prepare a small quantity of aqua fonts out of rock salt and vitriol calcined to whiteness in equal parts, and melt it in a glass cucurbite. Then in the upper part of the vessel I suspend plates of steel, and I close up the mouth of the cucurbite with clay, lest the spirits of the aqua fonts should endeavour to escape at any point, and for twenty-four hours I permit it to steam in hot sand. Next, having opened the vessel, I take out the plates, to which a yellow and very fine powder will be adhering, which I purge with hare's foot. Subsequently, I replace the plates, and repeat the operation continually until no more yellow powder can be made to rise up from the spirits, or to deposit on the steel. So also lead is calcined into white lead or ceruse over vinegar; so again copper over the refuse of grapes; and thus, in like manner, are the other metals corroded by vapours.
Calcination, by moist immersion is, when the body is plunged into some liquid which corrodes, then Calcines, and finally perfects by amalgamation or precipitation.
Reverberatory Calcination is solution into Calx. Calx, in its general signification, is any powder ground till it is impalpable, which we are accustomed to call Alcool. Thus, the term includes Calx, properly so called, Alcool, which is obtained by pulverisation, ash, and powder obtained by corrosion.
Reverberatory Calcination is of two kinds:
Calcination, specially so called, and reduction to ashes.
Special Calcination is that by which is produced true Calx in a reverberatory combustion. In this truly philosophical process, there is accomplished, after a most searching manner, an object of much importance towards the completion of our work. Herein a substance is calcined by itself alone, or with other substances added thereto, which materially help combustion, such as Sulphur, Nitre, etc. We make this addition in those cases where the solidity of the matter is great and indestructible. Nevertheless, things volatile are dissipated quicker than fixed things are conquered by flame. An airhole, or vent, is required for nitrous compounds, to insure the safety of the vessel.
Every so called greater Calcination is that which is made sweet by spagyric art and not by nature, and is serviceable to a speedy, marvellous healing, as the Sweet Vitriol of Mercury, Salt, and the like, which are very rapid in consolidating.
Every lesser Calcination is that which is by nature sweet, and has the virtue of quickly healing, such as Manna, Honey, Sugar, Nostoch, and the like.
CALCITARI: Rulandus: i.e., Alkaline Salt, Alkael.
CALCITIS, CALTICIS, CALCOTA: Rulandus: Names of Red Atrament.
CALCOCOS: Rulandus: i.e., Copper.
CALCUKEUMENOS: Rulandus: Burnt Copper; Scales which fly off from Copper when hammered.
CALDAR: Rulandus: Tin.
CALECAMENON, CALCUCEMENTUM CASTICUM: Rulandus: i.e., Burnt Copper; called also Calcutium, Costicium, Calcute, Endebastum.
CALENDULE: Rulandus:Saffron Yellow.
CALERUTH: Rulandus: is an endeavour to revert towards the first everlasting substance, as
when any matter seeks to return into its first matter, whence it originated,
CALI: Rulandus: Woad Ashes. Item, Jamen Alum
CALLENA: Rulandus: A species of Rock Salt.
CALLIETTE: Rulandus: are certain Yellow Fungi, found on the juniper.
CALMET, COSMEC, COSMET, CASMET: Rulandus: Names of Antimony.
CALOR ARTIFICIALIS: Rulandus: is that heat which can be administered, applied, and directed at the will of the artist. It is either simple or compound.
CALOR CINERUM: Rulandus: is when the more fixed parts of a matter are extracted by ashes. This is intermediate between the heat of the bath and of sand; by the help of this, not only are there extracted the more subtle substances approaching to the nature of water, but also colours and fixed parts.
CALOR DIGERENS: Rulandus: is when the matter to be dissolved is digested, which takes place i the athanor, or in dung.
CALOR FIMI: Rulandus: is when the vase is placed in dung, and the material therein is digested. This form of heat is much in use among artists in the operations of melting, digesting, and the putrefaction of substances. Sometimes horse-dung is substituted, the vessel being buried therein. Formerly, a wooden vessel was filled with hay or straw instead of dung.
CALOR FORTIS: Rulandus: is when the matters are separated by a fire very much increased intensified. It is either bound or free. In the first case, the matter or the vessel, is separated from the fire by another vessel. It is either a heat of sand or of iron-filings.
Sand-heat is intermediate between ashes and iron-filings. The vessel which contains the matter in a sand melting-box surrounded with sand, ejects a substance more fixed than the ashes can. Here it is to be noticed that fine sand does not furnish a more powerful heat than coarse.
The heat of iron-filings is of a higher intensity than that of sand; it approximates to the glow of an open fire, and expels the matter, or educes it.
CALOR LIBER: Rulandus: is that which is immediately contiguous to the matter or vessel. By this beat, those things which contain a persistent moisture are best treated, whether it be on account of an inherent aridity or paucity of the moisture in question, or because of its homogeneous and viscous character. I omit its use calcination, fusion, and other operations. It is either a heat of charcoal or of same.
Heat of coal or charcoal is when the matter, or vessel, is in contact with metals. It is useful in melting, joining, testing, calcining, and disintegrating.
Heat of flame is when the flames are caused to leap up and have contact with the matter or vessel, on the addition of fuel to the fire. This heat is called Living Flame, and hereby the operations of reverberation and calcination are performed upon all kinds of metals. By this also the spirit of a substance is educed.
CALOR NATURALIS: Rulandus: is that operation by which the solar rays cook the matter either of themselves, or collected in the focus of a concave glass. Artificers make use of this fire. We can dissolve and calcine thereby. Some state that it is to be used in the preparation of the philosopher's stone; while I leave this 'opinion to those who maintain it, I do not, on the other hand, think that it should be neglected altogether.
CALOR SIMPLEX: Rulandus: is that which serves for one operation, either of digestion or separation.
CALOR VESICA LEVIS: Rulandus: The heat of a thin bladder-is when the matter is placed in a bladder, then in the alembic, and the moist part is thus educed.
CALUFAX: Rulandus: i.e., Indian Oil.
CALUFA CYPTAS
SPEDRES: Rulandus: i.e., crystal.
CALX: Rulandus: in its chemical meaning is any powder reduced by the separation of superfluous moisture into the most fine and impalpable state.
CALX ASSATA: Rulandus: Roasted Calx, Alum of Fruits.
CALX EXSTINCTA: Rulandus: Extinguished Calx.
CALX FIXA: Rulandus: is a permanent and inconsumable matter.
CALX LIGNORUM: Rulandus: The Ashes of Wood, which are not converted into a vitreous nature and remain ashes.
CALX JOVIS: Rulandus: Calcined Tin, wherein is the spirit of tin.
CALX LUNE: Rulandus: Silver, Calcined Silver, or Blue Flower of Silver.
CALX MAJOR: Rulandus: Calx of Eggs.
CALX MANILA ALGA: Rulandus: is white Tartar, Calx Peregrinorum, or the Calx obtained from the bleached bones of certain fish or sea shells, especially mussels.
CALX MARTIS: Rulandus: The Yellowness, or Rust, of Steel or Iron. .
CALX MERCURII: Rulandus: Precipitated Mercury.
CALX NON EXSTINCTA: Rulandus: Living Calx, is Asbestos, and it is made in several ways. In some places it is made from certain stones or pebbles of the seashore, which are of the colour of cats' eyes, and otherwise grey or white, the stones being either dug up in fields by the shore, or simply collected. There are also regular asbestos mines, as at Sala, and in other places. It is also made from the shells of oysters, of the sea murex, and from egg-shells, as Dioscorides informs us (1. 5, c. 80), and Pliny (1. 36, c. 24, 29), etc, Living Calx is of two kinds: white and blue. It is of a hardening, igneous, biting, and encrusting nature. In a word, it removes and extracts. It has a natural antipathy for water, by which it is burnt; it has affinity for oil, with which it blends easily. Consult also Serapion.
CALX PEREGRINORUM: Rulandus: Tartar.
CALX PEREGRINORUM: Rulandus: Calx of Mussel Shells, or the Bones of Fish.
CALX SATURNI: Rulandus: Red Lead.
CALX SOLIS: Rulandus: Calcined Gold.
CALX VENERIS: Rulandus: Verdigris.
CAMET
LAMES: Rulandus: i.e., Silver.
CAMINUS: Rulandus: Furnace, Forge, etc.
CAMBILL: Rulandus: Red Earth.
CAMBUCA: Rulandus: i.e., Bubo, Abscess, etc.
CANALES CUNICULI: Rulandus: A Water-filter.
CANALES OCCLUDERE: Rulandus: to close the channels.
CANALES RECLUDERE: Rulandus: to open the channels.
CANALICULI: Rulandus: Apertures.
CANALICULUS: Rulandus: A kind of sieve.
CANALIS: Rulandus: A Channel for conducting water, Aqueduct; also Windmill.
CANALIS AQUARII: Rulandus: Water-pipes.
CANALIS, CAPSA BREVIS PATENS: Rulandus: Ashpan, or Sieve.
CANALIS CAPUT: Rulandus: Ash-pan or Sieve.
CANALIS ET CANALIS DEVEXUS: Rulandus: A forked or branched Channel.
CANALIS LONGUS: Rulandus: A long Channel.
CANALIS TRANSVERSUS: Rulandus: A transverse Channel.
CANALISCULUS: Rulandus: A small Channel.
CANCELLI: Rulandus: Grate or Lattice.
CANCIN PERICON: Rulandus: The heat of horse-dung.
CANFORA: Rulandus: The Gum of a Tree.
CANNA
SIPHUNCULUS: Rulandus: A small Tube.
CANTACON: Rulandus: Garden Saffron.
CAPILLUS: Rulandus: Lapis Rebis, which see.
CAPISTRUM AURI: Rulandus: Borax.
CAPITELLUM: Rulandus: Soapy Water, Water Saturated with Vegetable Salt.
CAPRICORNUS: Rulandus: Lead.
CAPSA: Rulandus: A deep Vessel, a kind of sieve.
CAPSA PATENS: Rulandus: A species of chest.
CAPSA PUTEALIS: Rulandus: A wide Basket.
CAPSAE: Rulandus: In which ore is placed before distribution.
CAPUT AREAE: Rulandus: The top of the stove.
CAPUT FODINARUM: Rulandus: The mouth of the pit or mine.
CAPUT FODINARUM ADVERSUM: Rulandus: The place where a mine is first opened up.
CAPUT FOLLIS: Rulandus: The mouth of the bellows.
CARBONES COELI: Rulandus: The Stars.
CARBUNCLE: Rulandus: is also the name of a precious stone, and is so called because of its dusky fire. When it is not sensible to fire it is called Apyrusta or Apyrotus. The Carbuncle is also undoubtedly the Pyropus, which was celebrated by Ovid in his second Metamorphosis as the house and dwelling-place in the sun. There are distinct species or kinds of Carbuncles. The first are those which are native to India and the African Garamas. These are called Cardedonius. The Indian are base and of a dead lustre. Among this species those which shine with a weaker and more livid light are termed Liviucias. These are much more numerous than the true Carchedonius. The second species is the Ethiopian Carbuncle, which does not radiate lustre, but is aglow with a secret fire. The third are the Scabri of Alabanda, which are darker than the rest. The fourth species is found, on the testimony of Theophrastus, both in Thracian Orchomenus of Arcadia, and a darker variety in Chios. The fifth species is the Traezenius, which has white spots or blemishes; of this there are many varieties. The sixth species has a pallid whiteness, is called Corithius. For the rest, all those Carbuncles which have a sharper and more liquescent brilliance, which are more black and more lucid than others, are termed masculine, while to all those which have a feebler light the name of feminine is applied. The best Carbuncles are called Methystisonte because their extreme glittering approaches the violet of the amethyst.
Very nearly allied to the Carbuncle is the Syrtites of Callistratus and Pliq which radiates a kind of broken or feathery light, and has been spoken of as a species of white Carbuncle. Moreover, that Anthracrite which is so similar appearance and in qualities to coal, and is mined in Thesprotia, is classified by Pliny (1. 37, c. 8) as a species of Carbuncle. The Greeks would appear to have called many substances by the generic name of Anthracias (Anthrax), for example, natural cinnabar, red lead, vermilion, minium, hematite, and for Carbuncle itself, of which the Rubinus, or Lychnis, is undoubtedly also a species. The same Pliny describes a variety of Anthracite which is encircles by white lines, and which is reckoned to be superior from its colour. More over, it has the peculiarity that if it be cast into the fire, it perishes, losing all its lustre; but if sprinkled, on the contrary, with water, it seems to burst into flame. Related to this is the Garamantitis, or Sandastron of India, which also is found in Arabia, and in its translucent depths seems to be glittering; with golden drops. There is also a stone which has a purple or scarlet colon and radiance; when warmed by the friction of the fingers, or by the heat of the sun, it will attract straws; it is found in Caries and Orchosa, and ma probably in India; it belongs, according to Pliny, to the Lychnis species, be is also, as it were, a kind of deficient Carbuncle. Our own Rubinus is species of Lychnis. Albertus also bears witness that the Carbuncle was called Anthrax by the Greeks, and that it was made to shine like a live coal in the dark when it was placed in a glass vessel and sprinkled with clear water. The species varied according to the country of its origin, and the splendour, a the substance thereof. There are gems found in our own mines which, plunged in water, seem to dissolve by their own fire; and these are of the nature Carbuncles. It should also be noted that Albertus describes a gem, which calls Pelagia, possibly after that kind of shell-fish which produces a pure dye, and is mentioned by Pliny as the Purpura, or Pelagia. It is of a transparent ruby colour, and is either a feminine Carbuncle, or else is the house of a gem, because a Carbuncle is found in its matrix. There are also stones which are partly Pelagia and partly Carbuncle. For other information concern the Carbuncle, consult Pliny, Solinus, and others. Other Carbuncles:
1. Garnet from Meissen.
2. Zeblicius, mined in the hill which is over against the stone-quarry whence Ophites are obtained; very plentiful in the neighbouring river.
3. Ethiopian, or Oriental Garnet.
4. A Bright Red Ruby.
5. Amethystizon, or Ruby.
6. Lychnis, or Yellowish Ruby.
7. Falsified Carbuncle, combined with Crystals, usually having a colour like the Amethyst.
8. Alabandicus, a precious Garnet from Asia.
CARBUNCULUS: Rulandus: A poisonous Ulcer, much the same as anthrax, which, however, is of a more cruel character; and from the thick black blood, of which it is adhering, it more quickly eats into the flesh.
CARDANUM: Rulandus: Garden Saffron.
CARDIS MARS: Rulandus: Iron.
CARDONIUM VINUM: Rulandus: i.e., Wine medicated with herbs.
CARENA: Rulandus: The twenty-fourth part of a drop.
CARIUM TERRAE: Rulandus: Lime.
CARMITI: Rulandus: i.e., Obulus, or Farthing.
CARNIT, CANNA, CUSANUM: Rulandus: Various kinds of vessels.
CARSI: Rulandus: i.e., Saline Water.
CAS: Rulandus: i.e., Gold.
CASA: Rulandus: A House inhabited by the Superintendent of the mine.
CASA CAMPHORA: Rulandus: Camphor.
CASEUS PREPARATUS: Rulandus: is the worthless residue remaining in the dregs of milk flowing from cheese.
CASPA: Rulandus: Mud Trough.
CASSATUM IN SPECIFICO DIAPHORETICO: Rulandus: is an unhealthy or dead blood in the veins, which prevents the motion and circulation of good blood.
CASSIDBOLT: Rulandus: i.e., Coriander.
CASTELLUM
LACUSCULUS: Rulandus: A Chest, Chest of Water.
CATELLUS FICTILIS: Rulandus: Potsherd.
CATENA: Rulandus: a Chain.
CATTENA DUCTARIA: Rulandus: an Iron Rope or Chain.
CATHIMIA: Rulandus: is (1) a vein of the earth, out of which gold and silver are taken, according to the saying of some masters. 2. Cathmia grows in furnaces of gold or silver. 3. Gold. 4. Spume of silver, 5. The smoke given off in the process of burning copper, and which is deposited on the upper walls of the oven.
CATHMIA AFFIDIA: Rulandus: i.e., Cathmia of Silver, having the colour of Litharge, i.e., Burnt Lead.
CATHMIA: Rulandus: i.e., Scoria of Gold, Copper, or Siiver.
CATHMIA FERRI: Rulandus: Scoria of Iron.
CATILLUS: Rulandus: A Porringer.
CATILLUS CINEREUS: Rulandus: A Coppel.
CATILLUS CINEREUS: Rulandus: is a Melting Vessel with two parts of moistened cinders of light wood, purified from all ashes and other dirt; and with one part of cinders properly ground out of bones that have no marrow [let not these bones be taken from pigs because they are so expensive] which have been reduced into a paste or mass, and properly mixed together in a mortar. Let this mortar be filled with moistened cinders, and the pestle, which is commonly called monachus, is hammered into it with three blows of a wooden mallet, and let there be cinders put inside, by means of a hair sieve, from the head of a calf. One or two blows may be added with a stag's horn. Then let the matter be removed and dried.
CATILLUS FERREUS EX ACIE TEMPERATUS: Rulandus: A Porringer of tempered iron or steel.
CATINUS: Rulandus: A kind of dish or platter; a Crucible.
CATINUS AEREUS: Rulandus: A round Pan or Caldron.
CATINUS AREXARIUS: Rulandus: the common sand Coppel, an earthen Vessel, shaped like a round cap, with a rim of three or four fingers broad. Made of some hard earth.
CATINUS FERREUS: Rulandus: An Iron Caldron.
CATINI MEDIA PARS: Rulandus: the Inside of a Caldron.
CATMA: Rulandus: the polished Surface of Gold.
CATROBIL: Rulandus: i.e., Earth.
CATHOCITES: Rulandus: Like the Iron Magnet, a kind of Sagda which attracts straws. There is also the Catochites or Catochitis, mentioned by Pliny, a kind of precious stone, which, by means of its very soft gummy or glutinous nature, causes the hand to cleave to it. It is found in Corsica, as Solinus tells us (Polyhist, c. 9). See also Pliny, 1. 37, c. 10.
CAUDA FOLLIUM VECTIS: Rulandus: Handle of the Bellows.
CAUDA VULPIS RUBICUNDI: Rulandus: The Tail of the Red Wolf; is Minium, obtained from Lead.
CAVERNOSUM: Rulandus: Glandular.
CAURUS: Rulandus: The North-west Wind.
CAUTELA: Rulandus: Caution; in the Spagyric Art, is that industrious habit combined with wariness, by which the Professors of the art do more easily carry out and accomplish their operations.
CAUTERIUM
KAUTIR: Rulandus: is a Surgeon's Instrument, by which they remove the skin for the cauterisation of ulcerous and putrescent gatherings on the body. It is also a simple corrosive Medicament, by which the skin is taken off without pain.
CAVA: Rulandus: A Hole, Cavity, etc.
CAVERNA: Rulandus: Council House.
CAVERNULE VENARUM: Rulandus: Ore decayed by the weather.
CAVUM LIGUORUM CONJUNCTORUM: Rulandus: A Rut, a Space between two parallel planks of wood.
CARDIR: Rulandus: i.e., Tin.
CEDRIA: Rulandus: The Gum from the Cedar Tree.
CEDUE: Rulandus: Air.
CELSA: Rulandus: Literally, a Hill, according to the German; according to the Latin, literally, the Muscle of Life. It is the Pulse which is the sign of life.
CEMENTARE, CEMENTIREN, STRATIFICIREN: Rulandus: To place any substances in alternate layers.
CEMENTATIO: Rulandus: is Gradation by Cementing.
CEMENTUM: Rulandus: is a sharp and penetrating Mineral Substance by which the metallic layers to be cemented or welded, are, chemically speaking, reverberated upon. It is either simple or mixed; in form, it is either a powder or paste.
CEMENTERIUM: Rulandus: A Welding Pot.
CENIFICATUM, CINIFICATUM
CALCINATUM: Rulandus: is that which is Calcined.
CENIPLAM
CENIPLOTAM: Rulandus: is an Instrument, used in Epilepsy, for opening the head.
CENTRUM OVI: Rulandus: i.e., the Yolk of an Egg.
CEPA PORCI: Rulandus: i.e., Squilla, i.e., Officinal Squill.
CEPINI: Rulandus: Vinegar.
CERATIO: Rulandus: This operation is defined by Gebir, in the first book, and the fifty-fourth chapter of his Sum of Perfection, to be the mollification or softening 7to a liquid state of a hard substance or infusible juice. It is called by this name, because it easily reduces the philosophical medicine into a liquescent substance, like wax melted by fire. When the philosophers desire to convert quicksilver into gold or silver, it is necessary that they should possess the medicine in a flowing state, which, in the words of Gebir, doth suddenly before the flight thereof adhere thereunto in the depth, and thereunto is conjoined by those things which are least. And it doth thicken it, and conserve in fire by its fixity, until there cometh unto it the leniency of a larger fire, containing the humidity thereof, and converting it by this artifice in a moment, to a true moist and a true dry, according to that for which the medicine was prepared. Ceration is performed upon a body which is hard and of dry humour by continual imbibition until melting takes place. According to the second book, and the twenty-seventh chapter of the Grand Rosary of Arnoldus, the sign of perfect ceration is when the medicine, being most swiftly projected upon a burning plate, resolves itself, without smoke, into the consistency of molten wax. Ceration is a subtilisation or making subtle of the parts, in order that their virtue and power may be poured out and dispensed into the bodies. And the moisture which is necessary is the science of the complements or the completion. This ceration cannot take place without a disintegration or dispersion, so that the matter may become as a piece of wax, melting and softening under a temperate heat. Note that such ceration is altogether a discovery of the Masters.
CERARE: Rulandus: i.e., to combine or incorporate.
CERAUNIA: Rulandus: Under this head there appear to be two kinds of resplendent gems which are referred to by Pliny (l. 37, c. 9). One is a shining and gleaming stone; the other is said to fall during storms of rain and lightning. There is the Asteria and the Astrios, or Astrion. The first encloses light like the apple of the eye. It is found in India and Carmania. The Astrios belongs also to India and Macedonian Pallene. In the midst of it there shines, as it were, a star, with the light of the full moon. When exposed to the stars, it is said to attract lightning. The best Asteria: come from Carmania. The poorer species are what some call Ceraunia; the worst have a light which is similar to that of candles (or perhaps of a certain fish mentioned by Pliny which shines in a calm night). There is also a kind of Astrios which has the phosphorescent light of a fish's eye. It glitters with radiance like a sun. There are white Ceraunia:, which seem to have stolen the splendour of the stars. Others gleam with a crystalline blue splendour. There are black and ruby-coloured varieties, found only in a place which has been struck by lightning. Consult Sotacus sad Zenothemis on the authority of Puny. These are the Thunderstones of the Germans, which fall from the clouds with a great noise. They are found in Grania, and there is a white variety from Spain; in Germany they are met with about the neighbourhood of the Elbe, where there are some specimens of Ceraunia, which are like crystal informed with cerulean blue, being also of divers forms, sometimes like a stick, sometimes like a pyramid, or sugar-loaf. They are never found perfect, perchance on account of the force with which they are propelled towards the earth. They are said to induce sweet sleep, to protect against thunderbolts, and to give victory in battle and in law cases. See also the twenty-third chapter of Solinus.
CERDAC: Rulandus: i.e., Mercury.
CEREBRUM: Rulandus: Water.
CEREBRUM ARIETIS: Rulandus: White of Egg.
CEREBRUM BOVIS: Rulandus: Burnt Tartar.
CERVICULAE SPIRITUS: Rulandus: is a bone of the heart of the stag.
CEROBER: Rulandus: i.e., Water.
CERUSA: Rulandus: i.e., Rust of Lead, White Lead, the Psimytim, Psimytion, or Aphidegi, of the Greeks, a Poisonous Body, according to Dioscorides and Nicander, which is cold and dry in the second degree. It is, however, well known to almost every one, and retains its name of White Lead in our pharmacopia. It is the powder, ash, rust, or ceruse of White or Black Lead. If manufactured from White Lead, it is called Spanish, and this is the whitest kind. At the present day it is made at Venice and Nuremberg. That which came from Rhodes, Corinth, and Lacedaemon was formerly much celebrated. Dioscorides (1. 5, c. 53), teaches the method of its manufacture, and also after what manner it may be roasted until it is like Sandarac or Sandix, and becomes a manufactured species of Sandarac. Consult Vitruvius and Serapion. It should be noted that there is some confusion both of names and ideas in regard to this substance. Sandaracs, or Sandaracha, is a kind of red colour; there are two species, rough and manufactured; the former was a red arsenic mixed with brimstone, otherwise red orpiment; the second was a kind of vermilion, and Pliny says that the colour Sandyx was formed by mixing equal portions of this substance and rubrics. Sandix, or Sandyx, is thus a manufactured red colour, which is referred to in the fourth eclogue of Virgil (1. 45), where some without need, would understand an herb, because Pliny ( 1. 35, c. 6), in speaking of this colour says that Virgil considered it to be a herb; but the colour of the herb may be understood. Hesychius speaks of a shrub called Sandyx, of which the flowers are a scarlet red. But Pliny speaks of a metallic Sandix, and of our adulterated ceruse, artificially roasted, which is like Sandarac. Consult Dioscorides, Serapion, and Avicenna. The finest of all ceruse is used as a cosmetic by women, and is referred to in Ovid.
CHAMBAR: Rulandus: Poison, the fruit of Poison, or Magnesia. The Turba says: It is the White Stone, and calls it Orpiment, Zendrio, Abaemech, Chalul. But when it has become white and innocuous, then it is called Lead, Exobmich, Magnesia, Martech, White Copper.
CHACEF: Rulandus: A Potter's Vessel.
CHALCOS: Rulandus: Sulphur Water.
CHALCITIS: Rulandus: Under the sections Atramentum and Calcanthos, we have exhaustively handled the qualities and differences which characterise Chalcites, Chalcitis, and Chalcanthum. There is that Chalcites or Chalcitis out of which copper is malted. This is Copper-stone, Marcasite, Pyrites, Macer, Mesne, the Stellate stone, etc. There is Chalcitis, a kind of precious stone, resembling copper or brass. This is Trichitis, a kind of capillary alum, which grows in pyrites. It is also called concrete Alum and Schistos. And the Arabs make mention of Colcotar. Chalcanthum is vitriol or copper, and the Chalcitis to which we refer under this heading is a species of Chalcanthum, which is a kind of Flower of Copper, and has a middle nature between Vitriol and Marcasite, i.e., it is Pyrites. This true Chalcitis is of two kinds: native and manufactured. There are also two kinds of native: Cyprian and Babylonian. The first has the ruddiness of copper. This is Zeg, or Citrine Atrament, which has elsewhere been sufficiently treated. It is also Colcotar. It is properly Red Vitriol, but not Sory; the Arabs, however, call it Sory, by a pardonable slip, for Sory is made from red vitriol. I have never found it in silver mines, but it is to be found in those of copper, as, for example, at Goslar. The second native variety, or that of Babylon, is described by Serapion; it is hard, and when broken has white spots inside. Manufactured Chalcitis is made from old Chalcanthum which is passing into a threadlike condition.
Among other species of Chalcitis we may mention
1. The hard, red Atrament.
2. Brittle, milky, red Atrament.
3. Hard, red Atrament, combined with Misy.
4. Hard, red Atrament, combined with Sory.
5. Hard Atrament mixed with Pyrites.
6. Red Cyprian Atrament.
CHALCOPYRITES: Rulandus: Lead, according to Synesius.
CHALCHOS: Rulandus: i.e., Copper.
CHALCHITOR: Rulandus: Marcasite.
CHALCUTE: Rulandus: Burnt Copper.
CHAMBELECH: Rulandus: Elixir.
CHANCHED: Rulandus: Steel.
CHAOMANTIA: Rulandus: is an Art by which Omens are found in the air when the stars of the air disclose and make things visible, so that men see and prognosticate by means of the air.
CHAOS: Rulandus: The Unformed Matter, and the Confused First State of all Things. According to Theophrastus, it is Air or Master.
CHARATRA: Rulandus: Waterspout.
CHEIZI: Rulandus: This is a term of Paracelsus. When it is applied to minerals, it refers to Quicksilver. When it is concerned with the vegetable world, it means the Flowers of Vegetables and Plants. When it occurs redundantly, or in repetition, as Flos Cheiri, from silver, it signifies the White Elixir, or its Quintessence, as Flos Anthos, Red Elixir of Gold. Others say it is Potable Gold; others again that it is Antimony.
CHELIE: Rulandus: Shears, or Scissors; it may also mean a Rock or Cliff in the sea.
CHELIDONIA: Rulandus: is Gold.
CHELIDONIUS: Rulandus: Several distinct things are liable to be confused under this name. There is the Chelidonius Lapillus of Pliny, a kind of stone which the ancients supposed to be found in the maws of young swallows. Reference has already been made to this belief. There is the Chelidonia, which is the herb Swallow Wort or Celandine. Swallows were said to make use of it to restore sight to their-young. There is the Chalidonia Ficus, a kind of fig which ripens towards the winter. There is the Chelidonia Gemma, so called because it resembles a swallow in colour. There is the Chelonia Gemma, a species of precious stone, properly, the eye of the Indian tortoise. It is sometimes called Chelonites. Finally, there is the Chelonitis, a Precious Stone in the form of a tortoise, which was found formerly where the Tangra joins with the Elbe, and of which there are several species; some of large size, and some so small that they are scarcely visible to the eye; some bright or pale tawny, or gold colour; some with black lines, after the manner of the shell on the sea tortoise. There are also some which have an oblong shape, and the quality of the ostracias. Others shine like the onyx. There is also a stone which Pliny calls Chelonia, and which is said to be the eye of the Indian tortoise, as already stated, or by others to be found in the heart of the tortoise.
CHEMIA: Rulandus: Some linguists say that Chemia is, and is called, an Art of Melting or Fusing, an Art of Analysis, and that the prefix ali is an emphatic and expletive particle, much as in the word manack, to which al is also prefixed, and then we have almanack, wherein the whole year and every day is numbered, and many other things are reckoned. But others would derive our term from the Greek, so that it should mean Archimia or Archodunia, the prime wisdom and knowledge, since it, moreover, has in itself the highest and most miraculous secret, and he that attains thereto will be facile princeps in all the other arts. Theophrastus, in the Book of Nature, says that in former times it was called Usopus and Usopaica; it is an art of melting and fusing which the world cannot dispense with, since hence come all wealth and property, medicine and handicraft. It is also called the Spagyric Art, the Art of Separation, whereby we learn to recognize the genera and species of all minerals; their beginnings, causes and effects; how they may grow, and are subjected to cleansing, improvement, alteration, commingling, union, augmentation and diminution. The ordinary definition runs as follows: Chemia is the Art of Separating Essences from any mixed substance whatsoever, and of suitably preparing the magisteries of artifices. It teaches the method of removing that which diminishes the grade, which detains or impedes. It teaches how to separate the false from the true, and to reduce things to perfection. Theophrastus also says: The third foundation of medicine is Alchemy. Nature never produces that which is perfect, or that which is complete in its condition, but man has to complete. This completing art is called alchemical. For the baker is an alchemist up to the point of baking bread; the tender of wines in that he cools wines is an alchemist; so also the weaver up to the point of making cloth. Therefore concerning that which is produced by Nature becoming useful to mankind, whosoever brings it into that condition which was ordained by Nature is an alchemist, however dull and unskilled otherwise he may be, even he who turns a raw sheep skin into a fur cloak. Therefore there is no art without alchemy. Again Theophrastus writes thus: Alchemy is an art which teaches how to distinguish the stars from the bodies, in order to direct the stars following the constellation in obedience. For direction is not in the bodies, but in the firmament. Hence it follows that what the brain assimilates is implied in the course of the Moon; what the milk assimilates produces Saturn; what the heart assimilates produces the Sun. Therefore the external firmaments are the directors of the Balm for a long time. Melissa will not wait upon the mother, unless she takes Venus away. Some derive Chemia from the Greek word which signifies to melt.
CHRISTI PABULUM: Rulandus: i.e., Virgin's Urine.
CHROMA: Rulandus: i.e., Colour.
CHRYSOCALCOS: Rulandus: i.e., Brass.
CHRYSOCOLLA: Rulandus: It is necessary here to distinguish between the Chrysocolla, which is another name for Borax, and that which is another name for a precious stone called Amphitane by Pliny (1. 37, c. 10). Distinction must also be made between both these, and the imitation Borax, which was used by painters of old, and also passed under the name of Chrysocolla. The Chrysocolla here mainly treated is not Borax of the common sort. It is, as it were, a gluten of gold; it is the German mountain-green, and that viridity which is sometimes found on slate. There is a native and there is a manufactured kind. Dioscorides treats of native Chrysocolla (1. 5, c. 54). There are varieties from Armenia, Macedonia, and Cyprus, and some excellent species of German origin. It is obtained from gold mines and copper mines, and up to the present time has been unknown to our physicians. It is also mined in Hungary, Burgundy, and Silesia, and gold is extracted from it by smelting. It is a sort of species of nitre. It may also be called a scissile green, as verdigris, or green of copper, is a rasile green. Pliny (1. 33, c. 5) calls it a putrid vein of humour congealed into a sort of slime in pits, and describes it as obtained from copper, gold, and silver mines. The manufactured Chrysocolla may be distinguished into hard, medium, and herbaceous, slimy, etc. But Dioscorides classifies them all among the species of verdigris, which are now used by goldsmiths, and were used formerly by doctors. He speaks of native Chrysocolla as formed of the urine of infants. And this is also called Tinckar and Borax. Native Chrysocolla has a dispersing and consuming quality. Pliny enumerates it among painters' colours. There is a distinct difference between manufactured and native Chrysocolla. Out of native Chrysocolla and azure blue, the best gold is made. Mica or Catsilver, of which we have already treated, is a species of Chrysocolla, concerning which consult Serapion, s.v., Tincar, who says that Chrysocolla is found on the shores of the sea, and is a species of salt which is hot and dry in the fourth degree. As to its medical uses, and how it is cleansed, see Dioscorides. Note that an over-dose is poisonous. Chrysocolla is also called Azot, Rebis, Water of Sulphur, Flower, Soul, Ghost.
1. Pure native Chrysocolla from Carpathos.
2. Chrysocolla from Misnia in a metallic Copper Stone-pure mountain green.
3. Native Chrysocolla from the Rhetian Alps, combined with Molochites, or Malachite.
4. Chrysocolla from the Slate Stone of Islebia.
5. The greenness which appears on slates.
6. Artificial Chrysocolla.
CHRYSOLITHUM: Rulandus: The precious stone called Chrysolite, which, like the Hyacinth, comes from Ethiopia, and is translucent with a gold light, whence it receives its name. Consult Pliny (1. 33, c. 9 and 12). Solinus calls it Chrysolampin, and Pliny says that its colour grows pallid by day, but shines like fire in the night. Albertus speaks of it as a gem which is very beautiful in the morning; but, as the day waxes, it loses the charm of its lustre, and seems altogether to deteriorate. It has antipathy for fire, which causes combustion in it. The same writer regards Marcasite as a gold-coloured species of Chrysolite, and calls it a blue and red stone. The virtue of Chrysolite is to raise melancholy spirits, to cure scabbiness and ulcers, and to mitigate the heat of fever. In the second Metamorphosis of Ovid, we find that it enters into the composition of the chariot of the Sun, the axis of the wheel being gold, the spokes silver, and the yokes of Chrysolite.
CHRYSOCOLITE: Rulandus: also signifies Arsenic, and the unknown stone Achesium.
CHRYSOS
CHRYSION: Rulandus: i.e., Gold.
CHYMIA: Rulandus: is derived from a Greek term which signifies the process of melting. Whence we have sap, or juice, and chemistry becomes the art of making or extracting sap. But among the ancient chemists the idea of coagulation was included under that of solution, and hence we have the term Chymia as the science of solution and coagulation. The prefix al is of Arabic origin, and with the Arabs the term signified the Spagyric Art, the art of extracting and condensing, also of separating and cleansing. Thus, chemistry is the science of dividing the pure from the impure for the confection of medicines, not alone for the healing of human bodies, but also, by another adjustment, for educing metals to the highest state of perfection.
CHYMUS: Rulandus: i.e., Mass. Also, refuse.
CIANUM: Rulandus: Whetstone.
CIBATIO: Rulandus: Corporation.
CIBUR
CHYBUR: Rulandus: i.e., Sulphur.
CICATRISANS: Rulandus: What burns leaves.
CICINUM OLEUM: Rulandus: The Oil of an Egyptian tree, called also Croton.
CIMENTARE: Rulandus: To Unite.
CINEFACTIO: Rulandus: is that process by which substances are reduced to ashes. But alkalis and metallic soot are sometimes called ashes. The name applies properly to substances that have been reduced by fire. Its administration is twofold close and open.
CINIS: Rulandus: The Impure Body. When the Mercury kills the bodies, there remains a precious ash, and it is called Calcination, Cibation. The ash is a white powder.
CINIS HEDERAE: Rulandus: Ash of Ivy, or Clavellated Ash.
CINIS CLAVELLATUS: Rulandus: i.e., Alkali.
CINIS EX CINERE: Rulandus: is Salt, Extracted Water. The ash is fixed therein. It is a cinder of a cinder; it is called Congealed Coagulate, for it coagulates water into earth ; it is also called the Ferment of Ferment, i.e., it ferments gold, as Rosinus states. Senior says: The purified Ash becomes an incrustation, and it is called Lime, Glass, Silver Litharge, Pure Water, Ashes. Then the bad earthly nature is removed, and that is their leaves and flowers-spirit and soul.
CINIS FARMENTITIUS: Rulandus: is called by the Germans Ashes of Vine Twigs. It is useful not only to physicians and surgeons, but to chemists. Pliny and Dioscorides enumerate its more secret virtues. It contains the potency of salt in a milder form. It removes fleshy execrescences. But its virtue differs according to the difference and quality of the material which is burnt. See Serapion and Galenus.
CINIFICATUM: Rulandus: i.e., Calcined.
CINERICIUM: Rulandus: A Goldsmith's Basket wherein gold or silver is totally burnt.
CINERIS VENA: Rulandus: Ash.
CINERITIUM: Rulandus: is an Amalgam of Gold or Silver, by some called Regale.
CINNABARIS: Rulandus: There is very great doubt among doctors as to what is actually signified by Cinnabar, for the term is applied by different authorities to very diverse substances. For the better distinction of true, fictitious, and manufactured Cinnabar, observe the following tabulation:
Cinnabar is of two kinds. True, Cinnabar, of which we here treat, which was called by the ancients the Blood of the Dragon, a name it still retains. It is also twofold, namely, Metallic, of which we treat below.
1. Red, like Sandarac and red lead. It is found in the form of small lumps. It was used by Venetian painters, because it is blood-colour. It is an antidote in medicine.
2. Black, and of globular shape; but this is an adulterated kind, which is shown by its excessive toughness. It is sometimes sophisticated with gum, and in this state is sold by apothecaries as genuine.
Pliny (l. 33, c. 7) speaks of Indian Cinnabar, which differs from the other varieties, and calls it the corrupted blood, or gore, of the dragon, when that animal has been crushed by the weight of an elephant which it has destroyed, and Cinnabar is really a combination of the blood of them both. To this Solinus assents. Other writers regard it as a metallic substance, and Dioscorides places it among metals. The Arabians classify it as a sap. Serapion says it is the sap of the plant ironwort, but when Dioscorides very exhaustively describes this herb, he does not mention its sap. Those who consider that Cinnabar is the exudation of a plant, or rather of a tree, say that the fact is indicated by its taste and flavour. They affirm that the tree comes from Lybia and the neighbouring regions, and that in our own parts it is obtained from the pitch or resin of the pine, which the apothecaries of Italy sell for the resin of the terebinth, to which it is similar in colour. So also Platearius affirms the blood of the dragon to be the sap of an herb or tree in India or Persia.
There is also metallic Cinnabar, called Nulton and Minium, or Red Lead. It is of two kinds, native and manufactured. The first is red in colour, like Sandarac, and when melted it makes quicksilver and sulphur. It is otherwise called Minium, and is of red colour, like Sandarac. It is found in silver mines, according to Pliny. Cordus says that it exists also in the vicinity of the Rhine, and in very large quantities at Schonbach. There is a vein of it in the mines of Misnensia, and the Germans call it Quicksilver Earth or Ore. It was held precious by the Romans, as Pliny informs us (1. 33, c. 7), and is referred to in the tenth Eclogue of Virgil. The former writer speaks of it sometimes as a vein of Minium and the stone Minium, and we find that it commonly adheres to a species of fissile-stone. The continual exudation of the stone in these veins is called quicksilver. According to Vitruvius, Anthracite was regarded as a kind of Minium, and at any rate the concrete Anthracite is found in close proximity to metallic Cinnabar, and when the latter is dug up the spade of the miner causes quicksilver to exude visibly, and it is straightway collected by the delver. It is to be noted that the term Anthrax was applied to many substances by the Greeks, and among these:
1. To the veins of Red Lead, as appears from the words of Vitruvius already
referred to.
2. To the precious stone called Hematite, which see.
3. To that most noble gem which Pliny calls Carbuncle.
4. To a species of earth, which is mentioned by writers on husbandry, and I believe it to be that which is dug up in some parts of Saxony, is dried in the sun, and is then used for wood, and for fires; it is undoubtedly a species of bitumen. And bitumen dried on the surface of the earth by the heat of the sun is the mother of that coal which is bitumen hardened by heat inside the earth.
5. There is also that substance which Theophrastus describes as like coal yet hardly coal, and nevertheless used in fires, as if it were coal. But it is lighter; a variety of this substance is found in our mines, and is called Pit Coal. It is not mentioned by Pliny. That also should not pass without a reference which Theophrastus terms true Minium, not using the Greek word which signifies Cinnabar in its sandy state, but which he calls also Cinnabar, not that it is that substance, but because it is like it in appearance. There is one important difference between native Minium and Sandarac. From Minium frequently, both the adapted and the rude kinds, Quicksilver may be obtained, which in the case of Sandarac is scarcely possible. Again when the ore containing Minium is cleansed previous to roasting, a part of it changes into quicksilver, and when it has been dried and pounded returns to its original colour. It is named either after the nation which uses it or the purpose to which it is applied; Rulandus: either Sinopia or Rubrica, or Artisan's Milton. Manufactured Cinnabar is composed by chemists of quicksilver and sulphur. There is also an adulterated Minium which is called Cinnabar, and is made from lead. Finally, there is a false Minium in argentiferous and saturnian alloys which is burnt out of a stone found in veins, and of this Pliny writes (1. 33, c. 7). The same author's account of the method used in the confection of minium is borrowed from Theophrastus.
CIRCIUS: Rulandus: North West.
CIRCULATIO: Rulandus: is the Exaltation by the agency of Heat of a Pure Liquid through a circular solution and coagulation in the Pelican. It is only for those liquid substances which are to be resolved or attenuated into air, and can thence in return be brought back into a liquid state; it most frequently follows those extractions by which essences are made. Not uncommonly it discharges the office of rectification, since liquids when they come out of it are not any weaker, but purer, more potent, and more translucid. Several operations concur in its administration, such as digestion, sublimation, vicarious distillation, etc. For example, much trouble and care are required for the proper extraction of spirit of wine, so that it may be obtained without any phlegmatic part. For as often as it is elevated, it always takes some moisture with it. Next, we will show by an experiment the manner of this circulation. The very best wine that can be obtained is taken, and it is poured in a capacious circulating vessel. When the aperture has been sealed up, it is left in the water bath for fourteen days, so that it may continually boil in water. Then it is taken out and put in a phial, and is in winter time placed still hot into cold snow water, an alembic being at hand with a receiver. But in summer it is placed in a cellar, in a refrigerating vessel, and the spirit being pure and free from all moisture, passes from the alembic and is discharged into the receiver. When no further ascension takes place the receiver is removed, and the phial is taken away with the wine, which now contains no true spirit but what Theophrastus terms vinum adustum. The spirit of wine is caused to revolve in the circulating vessel until no further liquefaction can take place; it is then dealt with by a humid elevation. When the material on which it is to operate is placed in the receptacle, it absorbs it readily, and relinquishes flight.
CIRCULATORIUM: Rulandus: is a Glass Vessel in which the liquor there placed is rotated, as in a circle, by alternate ascending and descending. It is used chiefly in rarefactions and circulations. There are many varieties in the conformation of this vessel, of which the two most important are the Pelican and the Diota.
CIRCULUS: Rulandus: is a round Iron Utensil for cutting glasses, the iron being heated and passed lightly round the glass, until that also is hot, when in this state it is aspersed with cold water, or subjected to a cold air, and so severed.
CISIA BIROTA: Rulandus: The Stand for the Whetstone.
CISSUM: Rulandus: A Tub for measuring.
CIST
KIST: Rulandus: is a Measure and a half of a Measure, according to the measuring of wine-about four pounds.
CITRINATION: Rulandus: is the Resurrection.
CITRINULORUM, PHARMACUM EX COLCHOTARE: Rulandus: i.e., Calcined Vitriol, reduced to an Alkali. It has much of the transparency which characterizes crystal.
CITRINULA: Rulandus: i.e., Flammula, an Herb mentioned by Paracelsus.
CITRINULUS: Rulandus: Crystal.
CLARETA, LEUCON
LEUCOMA: Rulandus: White of Egg.
CLARUM: Rulandus: That which is made out of Crystal.
CLAVI CORNUTI: Rulandus: The curved Peg to hold the Leather of the Bellows.
CLEPSYDRIA: Rulandus: is the subduction of the liquor through the eye of a solid vessel perforated underneath. This was formerly performed in horological instruments, i.e., in instruments which registered the time taken over the work. Hence the name. Water, oil, and mineral solutions were treated in this way.
The term eye signifies the door by which the subduction took place, although for this purpose other names are used, such as channel, funnel, the top of the tube, lid, etc.
The method varied, as in other cases.
CLIMIA ERIPS: Rulandus: i.e., Cathimia of Orpiment. It has also a brilliant colour ; it resembles Cathmia of Silver, or Cathimia. Taken by itself, it signifies Chalk of Silver, or Silver Chalk.
CLISSUS: Rulandus: is the secret virtue of things going from and returning whence it first started. It displays itself first in shoots, then in leaves, then in flowers, and seeds, and then again in taking root.
CLYSSUS: Rulandus: is a composite species made of the several varieties of any matter, separately elaborated. Thus, Clyssus may embrace the entire essence of a substance, when, all impurities and refuse having been separated, the essential parts of the species are amalgamated into one composition. Or, it is the extraction of the subtlety of all portions of a plant, commonly conjoined. The unification is accomplished in two ways. All the extracted virtues of the various members are conjoined and incorporated, or, otherwise, the oil is obtained in one cucurbit, the salt in another, the aqueous liquor in a third, and then the three are distilled through a common channel communicating with each cucurbit into one alembic, and there united. But this process does not easily succeed. For oil and water do not rise up equally. But the oils and the waters may be united separately.
COADUNATIO: Rulandus: is Elaboration, by which things that are separated may be united. It is sometimes called Coagulation, and hence that dogma of the philosophers, that chemistry consists in solution and coagulation, which, nevertheless, refers chiefly to the mystery of the stone. Thus Coadunation is the reduction of a solution into a coagulated state, when it is possible for the substances operated on to assume that state. There are two kinds: Composition and Coagulation.
COAGULATION: Rulandus: is the condensation from a tenuous and fluid consistency of things of the same nature, and their reduction into a solid state. Thus, those substances which have been attenuated by an aqueous, aerial, or fiery resolution, are hereby reduced into a homogeneous body. And thus Coagulation is co-ordinated by many other operations-divaporation, exaltation, sublimation, distillation, etc. It is performed in two ways : by Segregation and Comprehension. And it is either cold or hot.
Cold Coagulation is when the substance dissolved by heat is coagulated by cold.
Hot Coagulation is when by means of a suitable heat the dissolved matter is coagulated.
Coagulation by Segregation is when, certain portions being segregated, the rest are concreted. The operation may he termed Concretion. It is performed with heat, whereby the humour is evaporated, or exhaled, and thus the cause of fluidity is removed.
COAGULUM: Rulandus: A coagulating or macerating mixture, planter of Paris ; it is produced from milk, and causes milk to coagulate; it is also a ferment. Mercury is the milk. Our Mercury is the coagulator of its Sulphur. Mary the prophetess calls the Sulphur of the Philosophers Coagulating Coagulate, the Soul of the First Matter, and our Gold, because the Sulphur coagulates Mercury. It is also Ash Out of Ashes.
COAGULUM: Rulandus: i.e., Mercury.
COAGULUM SPECIFICUM: Rulandus: is the material earthly essence congealed into a dry consistency by Coagulation.
COAGULATION: Rulandus: by Comprehension is performed when the whole matter, comprehended together and remixed, is coagulated into a uniform substance.
COATETZ: Rulandus: is Half a Drop.
COBASTOLI: Rulandus: i.e., Ash.
COSATIORUM FUMUS: Rulandus: Cobalt.
COCHLEA: Rulandus: A Screw.
COCHLEARE: Rulandus: A Ladle, or Trowel.
COCHLEARE ALBUM: Rulandus: A white Ladle.
COCILIO: Rulandus: i.e., A Weight of two ounces.
CODAX: Rulandus: Uvula.
COELI PLANETARUM: Rulandus: signify with Paracelsus the proper orbs, or the spheres themselves, not imaginary ones, to which certain motions are attributed by the heathens, Pliny and Empedocles, of which motions they knew as much as of the cause of volcanoes. If ignorant as to things that are upon earth, how could they judge of things at an immense distance except by deceptive conjectures? It is just that, on account of their infidelity, they should, amid their speculations and imaginations, receive no truth, whereas true visions are reserved by God for the faithful. False visions proceed from the enemy of the truth, and hence result the speculations of the infidels.
COELUM PHILOSOPHORUM: Rulandus: is some matter which far transcends the nature of the vulgar elements, such as the Stone of the Philosophers, the Universal Medicine, etc.
COELUNA: Rulandus: is a Heavenly Spirit which makes its way into the essential forms of things, and thereby solidifies and purifies them. It is the purest of all things, the quintessence, complete and abiding, and conducts with it all the stars of the circle of the underworld. This is Microcosmos, the smaller world. Their proper spheres are in the planets. This under-heaven has earth and water, which must be separated and purified, and again conjoined to produce life and motion,
COEMENTUM: Rulandus: is dry Corrosion, by which any metallic body is arranged in layers with corrosive salts and other dessicating substances, and is so calcined and broken up. Calcination is performed in the following manner: The body to be cemented is reduced into thin plates, and cut up with forceps into small pieces. The corrosive substances are pounded into powder and steeped in vinegar, wine, or aqua fortis, till they are like a pulp, or poultice (some go to work with dry corrosives). The poultice or powder, or rather a part thereof, is placed in the box of the cementing vessel, a layer of the metal to be treated is deposited over it, then another portion of the corrosives, and so in succession, until the receptacle is full, or until all the metal has been exhausted, when it is covered with a final layer of corrosives, and the whole sealed up with pitch or some tenacious substance, and the operation of cementing is then performed with fire, or over a furnace, which must continue, according to the grade of cementing required, for four, six, eight, twelve, or twenty-four hours. N.B.-Let us suppose that it is my intention to prepare the Flower of Mars, or Chalybs, and that by cementation. I take a proper quantity of living calx, and compose it into a paste by means of an adult's urine. I place so much of this pulp in the bottom of the box of the cementing vessel as will be a finger's breadth deep. Over this I arrange plates of Chalybs, and seal the vessel as above. Everything being otherwise made ready, I place the box in a cementing furnace, and keep up for twenty-four hours a continuous fire rising from the third to the fourth grade. Then taking the matter from the vessel, I operate upon it in the mortar till it is reduced to a very fine powder; I separate the calx from the chalybs by heat; I dry the residuum; and the result is the best quality of Crocus Martis. Crocus Veneris is obtained in the same way, and is useful in many operations.
COENUM: Rulandus: i.e., excrement.
COERULEUM: Rulandus: so called on account of its colour, is Lapis Lazuli. The varieties are these:
1 Very beautiful Ultra Marine, or Cyprian, Coeruleum, similar to the best manufactured kind.
2. Native Coeruleum, in little clods, concave within, and removed from a very white earth. Beautiful blue, azure lumps which are internally hollow, and are found in a whitish grey earth.
3. Paduan, which is found in light grey earth. A blue and dark grey clod.
4. Native Thuringian, dug up in large quantities near Muchella. Ordinary blue, found in Thuringia.
5. Native, found abundantly, cleaving to hard, ash-coloured earth.
6. A fine Polish Lazuli.
7. A native Polish Lazuli, mixed with a hard, greyish earth.
8. Impure Lazuli on a white stone.
9. Spanish Lazuli, containing fine gold.
10. Native Snebergensian, cleaving to a rough stone.
11. Islebian mountain Lazuli, in a slate stone.
12. A beautiful mountain Lazuli, with mountain green in an iron ore and white quartz.
13. Native Snebergensian, together with a pure Chrysocolla on a hard and white flint, distinctly cleaving to it.
14. Native Gieshubelian, in a pyrites from which silver is excocted, and this is mixed with a congealed green sap, and is arranged in rings or zones, and the sap in question flows freely and plentifully outside the vein. A Mountain Lapis Lazuli in an extremely beautiful copper ore, out of which there is daily produced a grey colour or sappy exudation.
15. Manufactured Lapis Lazuli.
16. Manufactured Ultramine, which is affirmed to be brought out of Spain and from Thrace.
17. Blue green, which appears in a slate.
Native mined Coeruleum, or Lazuli, is of two kinds. It is found in the mines of Cyprus, according to Dioscorides (1. 5, c. 56), among cuprine alloys, and a most excellent quality in our own gold and copper mines, as, for example, those of Saxony and Silesia. It is also found in Hungary and Lotharingia. It is like a little pebble or stone under the earth, and adheres, like Chrysocolla, a scissile stone. Gold is extracted from it in Silesia. Its medicinal virtue astringent and dispersing. It is burnt like Chalcitis and washed like Cadmia. Pliny gives warning against its use in a crude form. He enumerates three species, Egyptian, Scythian, Cyprian, and to these may be added Campanian and Spanish. The right understanding of Coeruleum is as important as that of Chrysocolla. It is hard and yields little in this to iron. There is a brittle species which is beautiful in colour, but is impure and of scant use. For the rest, consult Serapion (lib. Agg., c. Hager), Alzanard, etc. Some will have it that Coeruleum is hot and dry in the third degree ; others that it is hot in the second and dry in the third. It has affinity with Armenian-stone, which is blue according to Dioscorides and green according to Pliny: it is not so hard as the emerald, but is sometimes used as its substitute: The second kind of Coeruleum is found in hollows under caverns of the sea, among the sea sand.
Manufactured Coeruleum. Of this there are many species, some prized by chemists. Pills are occasionally made from it by a grave error, as they should be prepared from the native kind and from the Armenian, the purging virtue of which has been described by Aetius.
COHOB: Rulandus: is Sand, or Dust.
COHOBATIO: Rulandus: is the frequent abstraction of the moisture of a body by continual effusion.
COHOPH: Rulandus: is a Paracelsian term very often made use of in the sense of Cohobation. It is that operation by which the matter is frequently soaked in liquid, and the moisture subsequently removed by distillation. It is that also by which the vegetables are steeped in their own sap, and then are left, or caused to putrefy and corrupt in a glass or in the Balneum Marie, or else in dung, until it is possible to separate the pure from the impure. Also the separation of the sap from the substance.
COHOS: Rulandus: is whatsoever the skin covers in the whole body; and the allusion is to the chaos reduced into order by the divine power which comprehends and spreads over all created things, issued from the primeval chaos, even as the skin comprehends and spreads over the whole mechanism of humanity.
COLCOTAR: Rulandus: with Paracelsus, is properly fixed Vitriol, from which the phlegmatic part has been extracted by distillation until no moisture remains therein. It is also the serpent or green lizard, which devours its own tail. It very often signifies Caput Mortuum. Vitriol is made red in a simple way without cohobation. It is also called red or citrine Atrament. It is made red until it calcines. It is ironically called Red Henry, to satirise certain lying surgeons, etc., who pretend to treat all kinds of sores and wounds by means of this one medicament, and destroy rather than cure the sick.
COLERITIUM: Rulandus: is a Liquid composed of Corrosives which are destructive to metals. Gold is the only metal which can withstand it, and, accordingly, it is assayed therewith. It will demonstrate the existence of the minutest alloy of inferior metals.
COLICA: Rulandus: is a Pain in the Womb or Bowels, and is caused by tartar dissolved in the stomach.
COLIS ASSURGENS CIRCA MACHINAE CASAM: Rulandus: Heap of Rubbish.
COLLECTA, SYMBOLUM: Rulandus: Contributions to any expenditure.
COLLECTAM EXIGERE A DODLINIA: Rulandus: to ask contributions from the masters.
COLLIQUATIO
COLLIQUEFACTIO: Rulandus: is the conjunction by an igneous melting of several fusible substances, molten into one composition.
COLOFONIA: Rulandus: i.e., Greek Pitch, Resin, or Gum at the Pine.
COLORATIO: Rulandus: or Colouring, by means of a Liquid Ingredient, is a method frequently resorted to. It is the liquid tinging. The substance to be coloured is made to drink, or to imbibe the colouring matter. It is performed in various ways, according to the quality of the subject, its texture, hard or soft, its degree of moisture or dryness, etc. Then also regulate the number of times that the operation must be repeated. It should be noted that there is a colouring of two kinds
when the whole substance of a thing is to be dyed, and when only an external coating is required.
External colouring concerns only the surface of a material, and is performed in many ways, the sides of the object being successively turned to the light when it is only required to tone down, or cause a fading in the actual hue.
Colouring by the heat of the sun is another method, made use of when it is required to educe a latent colour from potentiality into activity, or from the unseen into the manifest. It is serviceable also in arcane tinctures, such as invisible ink on paper.
Colouring by ablution is when dull, dusk, or obscure colours are washed with acid waters, and the colour is thus heightened and refurbished.
COLORITIUM: Rulandus: is a gradation of colour by means of a penetrating paste. It is a process for tinging, used principally with metals. It will not enter far below the surface, because of its grossness, unless, indeed, it be plentifully mixed with moisture, and thus formed into a thin slime.
COMBUSTIO: Rulandus: is Ignition, the reduction of bodies into CaIx by burning. It is either
incineration or vitrification.
COMISDI: Rulandus: Gum Arabic.
COMFLEXIO: Rulandus: is the Nature of a Thing. It is the quality of Heat or Cold. According to Paracelaus the latter has a humid nature, the former a dry nature. There are therefore two complexions, not four. For the proper nature of things hot, when simple and unmixed, is always dry, and if such a substance should absorb humidity, it will be changed by the cold nature, and the latter will receive a dry quality from the former.
COMMINUTIO: Rulandus: The reduction of a matter into minute parts by the application of some kind of force, such as grinding, pounding, hammering, etc., The dessication or cribation of the substance will sometimes facilitate the process.
COMPOSITIO: Rulandus: is the Conjunction of Substances that differ. It is either mixture or conglutination.
COMMISSURIE SAXORUM: Rulandus: Fissures in the Stones.
COMPAS, INSTRUMENTUM: Rulandus: ? An Instrument with an Index.
CONCHA: Rulandus: A Glass Vessel in the shape of a trough or tub, with a mouth and a
handle.
CONDER: Rulandus: i.e., Frankincense.
CONFIRMAMENTUM: Rulandus: The Stellar Body, or Astral Body of Man.
CONFORTATIVA: Rulandus: Tonics are Medicaments which strengthen the hearts and natures of man, and fortify the system so that what is hurtful cannot enter therein. This in a very eminent way is the method of all medicine, and herein consists the whole spagyric art. For nature is her own doctor : the man who bears the name of physician is only the minister of nature, and the servant of the true physician. If any one presume beyond this point, he is a molester of nature, and her destroyer. A tonic is that which strengthens man's nature and enables it to throw off accidental malady.
CONFUSIO: Rulandus: which is a pouring together, is a process for the commingling of liquids, which are naturally fluidic. Whether of the parts or of the whole, the consistency is aqueous, or fluidic. At the same time, there are many liquid substances which will unite readily without any methodical process.
CONGELATION: Rulandus:When the matter becomes thick and flows no more, but is instead tenacious, and stands firm, like ice upon water, then is the hard part broken, that all may become fluid and aqueous.
CONGELATIVA: Rulandus: are Medicaments which repress fluxes, and are of restraining and drying quality.
CONGLUTEN
CONGLUTINATUM: Rulandus: That which by putrefaction turns into a lime or glue.
CONGLUTINATIO: Rulandus: is Composition by glueing or sticking together, the nature of the substances remaining the same. So also this is reduction, or integral restitution. Now, the nature of gluten varies, and the name is applied to any substance which by virtue of a tenacious viscidity joins one thing to another, or holds things together.
CONJUGIUM: Rulandus: is Copulation; Rulandus: the union of the man and wife. Some say that there are three kinds of it: the first of the spirit and the earth, the second of the ferment and the stone, the third of the medicine and of the subject. But here we speak at the commencement, when the red man approaches the white woman by means of the water. The conjunction is the copulation of the congealed spirit with the dissolved body, as Theophrastus states. When the blood of the Red Lion and the blood of the White Eagle are united, the Red Lion can become the White Eagle, and be one with it. The Red Lion becomes white in order that the white may become red. Secondly, they must be married alive; then the woman approaches the man; the man renders her fruitful; then they must be placed in the sealed bed, in order that the woman may not flee away, and, lastly, into the bath of the sea; Rulandus: that is, the black solution of conception. The matter suffers, the form works itself, making the matter like it; the matter desires after the form, as the woman after the man. The commencement of the union is the calcination; then the Mercury calcines and triturates the bodies; coition takes place when the matter begins to become white ; then the feminine seed coagulates ; and there arises from both a third substance. Then this loses its individuality, and commences anew.
Aristotle tells us that the true seed is a celestial and heavenly thing; it is possible to separate it, although it be indeed a separate and distinct power of life; for, when the matter of the seed enters, a living spirit doth also find s way therein. But the matter of the seed comes out, and then indeed a living spirit doth most assuredly find its way therein.
CONSOLIDATIVUM: Rulandus: is a Medicament which assists the formation of new flesh over wounds and ulcers.
CONSERVANTIATIA PHRYSICORUM: Rulandus: are especially Medicaments which preserve life and the body from corruption. They are to be sought for the most part in those things which naturally possess a persistent and long-living quality, which also have a tendency towards corruption
as perennial and evergreen plants in the vegetable world; in the mineral world, substances which possess an abundance of essential liquid; among metals, those which are least subject to rust and verdigris. That which sustains the health of men, and therefore wards off sicknesses.
CONSOLIDA AUREA SOPHIA: Rulandus: An Herb having leaves similar to hyssop, and circular ewers, like the Flammula of Paracelsus. It is also called Milkwort and golden Thalictrum. It is somewhat obscure and humble, it is not much down; but its virtues were familiar to Paracelsus. It is found in Carinthia and about the Danube, in Argentoria and other places, including parts of Alsatia. Note that this plant seems to be the same as wild honeysuckle.
CONSTELLATIO: Rulandus: Supernorum astrorum in inferna virium et virtutum impressio operatio. The influence of the superior stars upon things below, and the operation and infusion of virtues according to a natural and harmonic law. This doctrine is a combination of hermetic principles with the arcane theorems of Paracelsus, and is concerned with the impressions produced and the operations performed by the constellations of the superior stars acting on inferior things. It embodies a most excellent physical science concerning the signatures of natural objects and the sympathies and influences interacting between that which is above and that which is below.
CONSTRICTIVA: Rulandus: are surgical Styptic Medicaments which close up the mouths of wounds.
CONTERFEHE: Rulandus: Iliac Passion, bursting of the guts, a painful form of gripes.
CONTORSIO: Rulandus: Iliac Passion, burstig of the guts, a painful form of gripes.
CONTRACTIO: Rulandus: is Impotence, or deficiency of the virile members.
CONTUS: Rulandus: An Iron Tool.
CONTUS FERREUS: Rulandus: Pushpick.
CONTUS FOSSORUM: Rulandus: Crowbar.
CONTUS TERTIUS: Rulandus: A Trial Rod.
CONTUS UNCINATUS: Rulandus: A Tapping Bar or Matlock.
CONUM: Rulandus: i.e., the top of the alembic.
COOSTRUM: Rulandus: The middle of the Diaphragm.
COQUERE: Rulandus: To steep.
COR: Rulandus: Fire, or any great Heat. Among metals it signifies Gold.
COR FUFFLA: Rulandus: is the impurity of bodies.
CORALLUS, CORALLIUM, BASSAD, BESED, BASSATH
BELISIS: Rulandus: are all names for Coral, and it was known to the Greeks as Gorgian, among other significations, on account of the fable that the substance originated from the head of Medusa. See Pliny, 1. 32, c. 2. It is also called CEeralium, Ciralium, and Curalium. It is to be distinguished from Coralloachates, a kind of precious stone or agate, which from its gold-coloured spots resembles Coral. See Pliny, l. 37, c. 10. True Coral is nothing else but a marine shrub, of which the nature is well-known, though many fables have been coined to account for its origin; among others that in the Fourth Metamorphosis of Ovid, where the legend of Perseus and Medusa is very prettily introduced to account for it. When Perseus concealed the head which he had severed from the Gorgon under twigs and leaves on the sea shore, it was found that the plants in question became hardened or petrified. In this state they were found by the sea nymphs, who scattered the twigs over the sea; and from their seeds we have Coral, which still possesses the stony quality imparted to it by the head of Medusa.
According to Pliny and Solinus the stone Lyncurium, Lyncorion, or Lyncurinus, a precious stone, or, as some say, Amber, which some of the ancients believed to be formed from the urine of a lynx, congealed in the air, changes adorning themselves with gold. Solinus, in his eighth chapter, cites Methrodus and Zoroaster as his authorities, for I know not what fables about the virtues and potencies of Coral-how it protects against lightning, and those whirlwinds mixed with fire which are mentioned by Valerius Flaccus. Those who will may consult Serapion in his Lib. Agg., where it will be found that the root of Coral is called Nigem and Mergem, whereas the branches pass under the name of Bassath. Avicenna also treats of Coral, and both writers say that it is good for epilepsy, that it improves the blood, prevents bad dreams, and is generally a useful medicament. Other authorities signify other virtues, and experience itself teaches that red Coral has a whitening quality, and is most powerful in dispersing stone in the bladder. Pliny (1. 36, c. 19) says that Coral is called Pyrites, but it is not pyrites, nor any species of marcasite, but he seems to understand by the term any stone from which fire can be struck. Coral actually is a glutinous and humid viscosity of the earth which by its own heat and that of the sea is transmuted into a stony substance-that which has more aquosity being white-and that it is fashioned by nature after the manner of branches of trees. I have seen Coral specimens of immense size, and also true white Coral near the port of Tangra, which was undoubtedly formed of the viscosity of the earth, hardened by its own heat and by water. I have seen flints in the same place. As it is certainly true that the same things are at times made after different ways, so it is possible that coral may be produced not only by the induration or petrefaction of a marine plant, but also by a viscosity of the earth. We frequently find that lampreys, eels, and so on, are generated out of a viscous slime. They breed also by rubbing together, and so producing a sort of soft spume or froth. Finally, they breed by the ordinary fashion of depositing eggs. But enough of this matter. To return to our subject, Coral is made by art in imitation of Nature, and we find manufactured specimens which seem almost to equal, so closely do they resemble, the genuine kind. On this point the practical chemists may be consulted, and also as to the composition of counterfeit coral.
CORIUM TERRAE: Rulandus: Earth.
CORNELIUS: Rulandus: or more properly Corneolus, is a gem or stone found on the sea shore in Italy, and now also in Germany, where it is well known, as it is frequently set in rings. It appears to me to be, and so far as my knowledge extends, it is a species of jasper. But there are two kinds of Cornelian, one which is bright red, and another which is paler in its colour, for it approaches flesh tint, whence some say that it has its name of Corneolus. There is also a Cornelian with small white spots, another with white lines, yet another which is spread all over with a dusky redness, while some specimens are brilliant like vermilion. Its medicinal quality is to stop bleeding, to check menstruation, and hemorrhage. It is also said to assuage passion, and is a cleansing dentifrice for the mouth.
CORNU CERVI: Rulandus: is in chemistry the Beak of the Alembic. In Paracelsian medicine it is a healing herb for wounds, having leaves like the horns of a stag, with which it is connected by the doctrine of signatures.
COROCRUM: Rulandus: i.e., Ferment.
CORPUS: Rulandus: (1) The body is a metallic entity, wherein the virtue' of the Universal Spirit resides and fixes the spirits. That which is fixed is called a body. It is also called substance and ashes, because it is fixed. It also has a fixed Sulphur. It is, moreover, called Earth, Magnesia, Caba, Matrix, Key, Holy Virgin, the King's Crown, Talc, Glass, Spirit of Glass, Alum, Gum of Scotland, Sulphur Water, Lunar Froth, White Gum. For there are four bodies. (2) The bodies are not naturally dark, gloomy and black. When living they are bright, white and clear. A perfect body is ferment and tincture. The white is imperfect, the red is perfect. (3) The body is the earth which remains on the floor as dead. For the virtue ascends with the spirit. (4) The soul is the virtue of the body, which, being sublimated with the spirit, is the oil of the body. The spirit is the mercurial water which extracts and sublimates the soul.
CORPUS INVISIBILE: Rulandus: is the soul, so called because it holds a middle position between the visible body and the spirit. It is called a body because it participates in the qualities of a body, and invisible because it participates in the nature of an invisible spirit. These are physical and not theological definitions.
CORPUS PHYSICUM: Rulandus: is the subject of Nature.
CORPORA SUPERCOELESTIA: Rulandus: are those bodies which are known to the mind only by means of imagination, and not to the eyes of flesh. They are the subjects of wonderful spagyric operations.
CORROSIO: Rulandus: is a Calcination, reducing coagulated substances by means of corrosive spirits into Calx. It is either vaporous or immersive.
Corrosion by Stratification is performed by Calcination, when that substance which is to be corroded is arranged in any vessel, in alternate layers with corrosive powders. The matter is either cut into thin plates, or broken into conveniently small pieces.
Corrosion by Paste is performed when the thin metallic plates or fragments of stone, etc., are made into a kind of pottage or plaster. Hence this operation might be called a plastering.
The plates are set aside somewhere until the corrosion takes place. It is requisite that the pottage should consist of separate materials, such as salts or sour chalcanthum.
CORROSIVES: Rulandus: are Surgical Medicaments, by which callous and superfluous flesh is removed. They are also called Catharetica, Nemomena, Septica.
CORTEX AERIS: Rulandus: Flower of Copper.
CORTEX MARIS: Rulandus: Philosophical Vinegar.
CORUSCUS: Rulandus: The Ear of a Mouse.
COTICULA EXPERIRI AURUM: Rulandus: to assay Gold.
CRATER: Rulandus: A Kettle which is wide above and narrow beneath.
CRATICULA: Rulandus: A Grate, is an iron instrument consisting of four iron bars, about the thickness of a finger, with a breadth of about half a finger between them ; it contains the fire beneath the chemical oven.
CRETA ARGENTARIA: Rulandus: is Argentiferous Earth, in which the presence of the precious metal is denoted by small silver sparkles.
1. Silver Chalk-stone.
2. Good Drawing Chalk.
3. Hard Chalk-stone.
4. Soft Waldenburg Clay.
5. Tophacea.
6. In a hard violet-coloured Ash.
7. Blue, mined in Thuringia, used in colouring walls.
8. Hard Green.
9. Semi-green.
10. Soft Black.
11. Soft Black, with Argentiferous Sparkles.
12. Hard Black Chalk.
13. White Artificer's, of which the walls of Matrona in Catalan are built, and of which the port of Algiers is also said to be constructed.
CRETA NIGRA: Rulandus: i.e., is Black Sulphur.
CRIBRATORIUM: Rulandus: A kind of sieve, colander, or strainer. It is also Mercury. Senior (an adept) says: Strain it with the strainer, that is, with the top of the retort or cucurbit. Let it, otherwise, be threaded, for it cometh out like a thread. Also a Barrel.
CIBRUM: Rulandus: A Sieve.
CIBRUM ROTUNDATUM: Rulandus: A Copper-lined colander, having an iron bottom.
CROCUS AURICHALCUM: Rulandus: Yellow Bronze. Also Fire, with its companions, dried.
CRUCUS FLOS: Rulandus: Saffron Flower.
CRUCIBULUM: Rulandus: is a Melting Vessel, made of some earth which can absolutely withstand fire; it has a narrow base, and widens out into a round or triangular body; it is used for melting and liquefying metals. There is also a species of crucible which is vulgarly called a Cupel, and is adapted for melting metals.
CRUOR SALIS: Rulandus: The superfluous Saline Matter, separated from natural Salt in digestion.
CRUSTAE: Rulandus: Scales.
CRYSTALLUS: Rulandus: is a Stone congealed out of snow by the intensity of frost. It is certainly ice, because it cannot tolerate heat. Hence also its name. It is brought from the East, India, Asia, Cyprus, and the Alpine range. This is on the authority of Pliny (1. 37, c. 2), where he also cites the opinions of various authors as to its country, size, etc., also as to whether it is found in the earth, in pits, between rocks, and whether it is brought down by torrents. Certainly the white fluor which is found in our mines, and of which we have before treated, is, in all respects, similar to crystal. In the impassable Alpine crags, where no ray of sunlight ever penetrates, it becomes of immense size. Nor is this wonderful. For the snow never melts, and it increases daily. Pliny says that six-sided crystals grow spontaneously. I have seen smooth and triangular crystals which have, perhaps, been so shaped by art. For as with electrum, so also with crystal, it is possible to prepare and cleanse it True crystals have many flaws. They are sometimes rough, sometimes have ruddy stains, sometimes there is a cloud in them, sometimes an internal abscess or tumour, etc. The pure and limpid specimens are called Acentala, that is, unblemished, by Pliny. Of these the best vessels and drinking cups are made, and it is a pride of luxury to make use of what perishes so quickly. When broken, there is no way of repairing or piecing together the fragments. For the rest, crystal has a medicinal use in consuming bodies. Placed under the tongue, it is said to quench thirst. Ground and mixed with honey, it increases the milk of mothers. It has other powers and uses. Consult Solinus on the crystal in, the twentieth chapter of his Polyhistory. It was referred by the old astrologers to the Moon. Chemically speaking, the crystal is a fragile stone made by a chemical congelation. The congelation takes place in such a manner that the aqueous humour is withdrawn, and the sap congealed, so that a stone forms, without any operation of manifest heat. If, however, a part of the moisture be evaporated, the work proceeds more quickly. There are many species of crystal.
1. The most pure Alpine Sexangular Crystal.
2. Translucid Sexangular Crystal of Bohemia, combined with Pyrites.
3. Mined in Misnia at the mountain of Cribenstein.
4. Impure Sexangular Crystal, of the colour of whey.
5. Shining with a yellowish colour.
6. Polished and shaped into various figures.
7. Combined and coloured with Cinnabar.
CUBIL: Rulandus: i.e., Red Earth.
CUCULATUM: Rulandus: i.e., Brandy.
CUCURBITA: Rulandus: is a Vessel shaped for the most part like an inverted cone. One form is globe-shaped at the bottom; another is flat.
CUCURBITA AGRESTIS: Rulandus: The Potato.
CUCURBITA COECA: Rulandus: A Vessel in which dissolutions of salts and other substances are thoroughly filtrated by vapour.
CULATUM: Rulandus: i.e., Calcined.
CULTELLUS: Rulandus: A small Knife.
CULTELLUS UTRINQUE ACUTUS: Rulandus: A two-edged Knife.
CUNEUS: Rulandus: A Wedge of Ore, cut into pieces.
CUNEUS FERREUS: Rulandus: An Iron Wedge.
CUNEUS SUSSCUS: Rulandus: Another species of Wedge.
CUNICULUS HABENS JUS POSSESSIONIS: Rulandus: A smaller species of Wedge.
CUNICULUM AGERE: Rulandus: To extract the live lode for working.
CUPEROSA: Rulandus: i.e., Burnt Copper.
CUPEROSUM: Rulandus: A Vein of Cuprine Ore.
CUPPA
CUPPA PARVA: Rulandus: A kind of round knob.
CUPRUM: Rulandus: i.e., Copper, Venus, Cancer.
CUPRUM KUBEUM INCOMPLETUM: Rulandus: Red Copper.
CURCUMA: Rulandus: is a yellow substance called Siradonia, in use among dyers.
CURTUMA
CURSUMIA: Rulandus: i.e., Gold.
CURYATURA ROVE: Rulandus: Wooden Twist, Block.
CUTIS: Rulandus: Skin.
CYCIMA: Rulandus: Lithargyrum, Silver Litharge.
CYMOLEA
CHYMOLEA: Rulandus: Sedge or Reeds.
CYMOLIA: Rulandus: White washed Ore, White Silver Litharge, Marl, or Fuller's Earth.
CYNNIA, CYMIA, CARORA: Rulandus: A Vessel shaped like an urinal.
CYNNABAR, ZINGIFUR: Rulandus: i.e., Cinnabar.
CYROENIA, CROCOMMA: Rulandus: i.e., Refuse of Oil and of Saffron.

Return to Top

Alchemical Dictionary - C

back