Elixir

Elements principles and the natural world · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A transformative ferment, or a thing’s essence.

In the book. Fermentum makes this relationship more explicit by calling a ferment a fixed matter that reduces another matter to its own nature and fixedness.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 20; facsimile PDF page 348.

Historical Definition

Elixir is properly a ferment, the smallest part of which turns the whole mass of a thing into its own kind; it can also mean the essence of a thing.

Meaning

Two senses are stated. In the first, an elixir is a ferment whose small part is said to turn a whole mass into its own kind. In the second, it is the essence of a thing. The second clause is not merely another name for the first operation: it allows the term to identify an essence without repeating the account of conversion.

The relation of small to large gives the first sense its force. The smallest part acts upon a mass, and the result is described through resemblance of kind. The dictionary is reporting a claimed power, without stating a quantity, a ratio or a visible criterion for a completed change. “Smallest” should therefore remain a qualitative assertion rather than being converted into a measurement.

“Own kind” also deserves attention. The ferment is not simply described as causing any alteration whatsoever. Its action is directed towards the nature or kind attributed to itself. That relation links the definition to the book’s interest in how an agent communicates its condition to another subject.

Use in the Book

Fermentum makes this relationship more explicit by calling a ferment a fixed matter that reduces another matter to its own nature and fixedness. Fixatio supplies the related operation of making what flies in fire endure it. Those entries explain why fixedness can matter within the ferment vocabulary, although Elixir itself does not state a complete preparation.

Lapis Philosophorum is defined as the highest virtue of terrestrial things, giving tincture. Tinctura is that which tinges a body with its colour. Essentia quinta is an extracted matter purified from impurity and corruption. These connections establish overlapping interests in virtue, essence, tincture and preparation. They do not prove that every author uses all these names for exactly the same subject.

The dictionary also names particular essences, such as Flos cheiri, the essence of gold. Such an entry gives a specific material setting that the general Elixir definition leaves open. A reader should take that specificity from the particular text rather than assume it for every occurrence of the term.

Places to Read

Essentia quinta. Quintessence described through extraction, purification and claimed incorruptibility.

Fermentum. A fixed agent credited with communicating its nature and fixedness.

Fixatio. An operation defined through resistance to loss or flight in fire.

In This Edition

The modernised definition preserves both the transformative claim and the alternative essence sense. It does not reduce elixir to a general word for a drink or expand it into an unqualified promise of medicine or metallic conversion.

When following an argument, identify what the elixir is said to be, the subject on which it acts, and the sense of “kind” or “essence” that the author develops. These questions draw out the information a passage may supply while keeping clear what the dictionary’s short definition leaves unspecified.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 20; facsimile PDF page 348 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Elixir

See also. Essentia quinta; Fermentum; Fixatio; Flos cheiri; Lapis Philosophorum; Tinctura