Fixatio

Operations instruments and practitioners · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

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

In the book. Fermentum calls its subject fixed and attributes to it the power of bringing another matter to its own nature and fixedness.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 22; facsimile PDF page 350.

Historical Definition

Fixatio is making something that flies in fire endure the fire.

Meaning

The definition establishes a before and after. Something initially flies in fire, and the work makes it endure the fire instead. The language concerns a change in the subject’s behaviour, without naming the subject or the operation’s means.

“Flies” is kept as the source’s image of departing or being carried away. The related entry Volatile describes a light matter carried upward. The connection is useful, but Fixatio itself does not classify the precise manner of flight or define a modern physical transformation.

“Endure” is equally important. The resulting subject is described in relation to fire, rather than as simply harder, heavier or different in colour. A passage that names fixation may therefore be concerned with resistance under a particular treatment, not just with an object’s ordinary solidity.

Use in the Book

Fermentum calls its subject fixed and attributes to it the power of bringing another matter to its own nature and fixedness. Elixir gives the related account of a small part acting upon a whole mass. These connections make fixedness part of the dictionary’s explanation of an agent’s efficacy, rather than an isolated descriptive adjective.

Compositum is an unseparated body, while Coagulatio is making a thin thing thick. Those definitions should not be substituted for fixation. The dictionary supplies different operative distinctions: separation, thickening and enduring fire are not presented as the same condition. A material could be described through more than one distinction, but a reader needs the author’s own account to establish the relationship.

Volatile provides the close contrast, yet the pair should not be forced into a complete scheme unsupported by the entries. The dictionary tells us what a volatile matter does and what fixation is said to accomplish. It does not identify all substances that can be fixed or guarantee that one method applies to them all.

Places to Read

Coagulatio. A change from a thinner to a thicker condition.

Compositum. A compound body considered before separation.

Elixir. A transformative ferment, or a thing’s essence.

In This Edition

The edition preserves the relative form of the explanation: what flies is made to endure. That is more faithful than supplying a modern numerical test or equating fixedness with one composition.

When following a historical argument, distinguish the starting subject, the change claimed for it and the evidence the author gives of endurance. The dictionary defines the goal in broad language; a longer passage must supply the further conditions. This keeps an important operational idea available without reconstructing an unmentioned recipe.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 22; facsimile PDF page 350 — Facsimile

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

See also. Coagulatio; Compositum; Elixir; Fermentum; Volatile