and carefully luted: draw off the spirit by a very gentle heat, there will remain in the bottom of the retort the quintessence or soul of mercury; this is to be sublimed by applying a stronger heat to the retort that it may become volatile, as all the philosophers express themselves—Si fixum solvas faciesque volare solutum,Et volucrum figas faciet te vivere tutum.
This is our luna, our fountain, in which the king and queen may bathe. Preserve this precious quintessence of mercury, which is very volatile, in a well-shut vessel for further use.
8. Let us now proceed to the operation of common gold, which we shall communicate clearly and distinctly, without digression or obscurity; that from vulgar gold we may obtain our philosophical gold, just as from common mercury we obtained, by the preceding processes, philosophical mercury.
In the name of God, then, take common gold, purified in the usual way by antimony, convert it into small grains, which must be washed with salt and vinegar, till it be quite pure. Take one part of this gold, and pour on it three parts of the quintessence of mercury; as philosophers reckon from seven to ten, so we also reckon our number as philosophical, and we begin with three and one; let them be married together like husband and wife, to produce children of their own kind, and you will see the common gold sink and plainly dissolve. Now the marriage is consummated; now two things are converted into one: thus the philosophical sulphur is at hand, as the philosophers say, the sulphur being dissolved the stone is at hand. Take then, in the name of God, our philosophical vessel, in which the king and queen embrace each other as in a bedchamber, and leave it till the water is converted into earth, then peace is concluded between the water and fire, then the elements have no longer any thing contrary to each other; because, when the elements are converted into earth they no longer oppose each other; for in earth all elements are at rest. For the philosophers say, “When you shall have seen the water coagulate itself, think that your knowledge is true, and that your operations are truly philosophical.” The gold is now no longer common, but ours is philosophical, on account of our processes: at first exceedingly fixed; then exceedingly volatile, and finally exceedingly fixed; and the whole science depends upon the change of the elements. The gold at first was a metal, now it is a sulphur, capable of converting all metals into its own sulphur. Now our tincture is wholly converted into sulphur, which possesses the energy of curing all diseases: this is our universal medicine against all the most deplorable diseases of the human body; therefore, return infinite thanks to Almighty God for all the good things which he has bestowed upon us.
9. In this great work of ours, two modes of fermenting and projecting are wanting, without which the uninitiated will not easily follow our process. The mode of fermenting is as follows: Take of our sulphur above described one part, and project it upon three parts of very pure gold fused in a furnace; in a moment you will see the gold, by the force of the sulphur, converted into a red sulphur of an inferior quality to the first sulphur; take one part of this, and project it upon three parts of fused gold, the whole will be again converted into a sulphur, or a friable mass; mixing one part of this with three parts of gold, you will have a malleable and extensible metal. If you find it so, well; if not add other sulphur and it will again pass into sulphur. Now the sulphur will be sufficiently fermented, or our medicine will be brought into a metallic nature.
10. The mode of projecting is this: Take of the fermented sulphur one part, and project it upon ten parts of mercury, heated in a crucible, and you will have a perfect metal; if its colour is not sufficiently deep, fuse it again, and add more fermented sulphur, and thus it will acquire colour. If it becomes frangible, add a sufficient quantity of mercury and it will be perfect.
Thus, friend, you have a description of the universal medicine, not only for curing diseases and prolonging life, but also for transmuting all metals into gold. Give therefore thanks to Almighty God, who, taking pity on human calamities, has at last revealed this inestimable treasure, and made it known for the common benefit of all.19
Such is the formula (slightly abridged) of Carolus Musitanus, by which the philosopher’s stone, according to him, may be formed. Compared with the formulas of most of the alchymists, it is sufficiently plain. What the sublimed mercury is does not appear; from the process described we should be apt to consider it as corrosive sublimate; on that supposition, the sal sapientum formed in No. 5, would be calomel: the only objection to this supposition is the process described in No. 5; for calomel is not soluble in alcohol. The philosopher’s stone prepared by this elaborate process could hardly have been any thing else than an amalgam of gold; it could not have contained chloride of gold, because such a preparation, instead of acting medicinally, would have proved a most virulent poison. There is no doubt that amalgam of gold, if projected into melted lead or tin, and afterwards cupellated, would leave a portion of gold—all the gold of course that existed previously in the amalgam. It might therefore have been employed by impostors to persuade the ignorant that it was really the philosopher’s stone; but the alchymists who prepared the amalgam could not be ignorant that it contained gold.
There is another process given in the same preface of a very different nature, but too long to be transcribed here, and the nature of the process is not sufficiently intelligible to render an account of it of much consequence.20
The preceding observations will give the reader some notion of the nature of the pursuits which occupied the alchymists: their sole object was the preparation of a substance to which they gave the name of the philosopher’s stone, which possessed the double property of converting the baser metals into gold, and of curing all diseases, and of preserving human life to an indefinite extent. The experiments of Wilson, and the formula of Musitanus, which have been just inserted, will give the reader some notion of the way in which they attempted to manufacture this most precious substance. Being quite ignorant of the properties of bodies, and of their action on each other, their processes were guided by no scientific analogies, and one part of the labour not unfrequently counteracted another; it would be a waste of time, therefore, to attempt to analyze their numerous processes, even though such an attempt could be attended with success. But in most cases, from the unintelligible terms in which their books are written, it is impossible to divine the nature of the processes by which they endeavoured to manufacture the philosopher’s stone, or the nature of the substances which they obtained.21
In consequence of the universality of the opinion that gold could be made by art, there was a set of impostors who went about pretending that they were in possession of the philosopher’s stone, and offering to communicate the secret of making it for a suitable reward. Nothing is more astonishing than that persons should be found credulous enough to be the dupes of such impostors. The very circumstance of their claiming a reward was a sufficient proof that they were ignorant of the secret which they pretended to reveal; for what motive could a man have for asking a reward who was in possession of a method of creating gold at pleasure? To such a person money could be no object, as he could procure it in any quantity. Yet, strange as it may appear, they met with abundance of dupes credulous enough to believe their asseverations, and to supply them with money to enable them to perform the wished-for processes. The object of these impostors was either to pocket the money thus furnished, or they made use of it to purchase various substances from which they extracted oils, acids, or similar products, which they were enabled to sell at a profit. To keep the dupes, who thus supplied them with the means of carrying on these processes, in good spirits, it was necessary to show them occasionally small quantities of the baser metals converted into gold; this they performed in various ways. M. Geoffroy, senior, who had an opportunity of witnessing many of their performances, has given us an account of a number of their tricks. It may be worth while to state a few by way of specimen.
Sometimes they made use of crucibles with a false bottom; at the real bottom they put a quantity of oxide of gold or silver, this was covered with a portion of powdered crucible, glued together by a little gummed water or a little wax; the materials being put into this crucible, and heat applied, the false bottom disappears, the oxide of gold or silver is reduced, and at the end of the process is found at the bottom of the crucible, and considered as the product
