A Chymical Dictionary

Arthoicnm

Salts solvents and liquid preparations · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A red herbal oil identified through a specified preparation setting.

In this edition. A textual note records the reading of the 1650 printing and the editorial treatment.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 7; facsimile PDF page 335.

Historical Definition

Arthoicnm is a red oil artificially extracted from herb roots digested with bread in dung.

Meaning

The definition gives source material, accompanying matter, a treatment and a resulting colour and form. The roots are the herbal source; bread accompanies them; digestion in dung describes the setting of the preparation; red oil names the product. Keeping that sequence visible makes the entry considerably more intelligible than treating Arthoicum as an unexplained ingredient.

Digestio and Fimus equinus provide relevant operational vocabulary. They help the reader distinguish prolonged preparation and its heating context from the bodily sense of digestion. The present entry nevertheless leaves the plants, duration and exact conditions unnamed, so a complete process cannot be recovered from it alone.

Places to Read

Digestio. Preparation understood through digestion and the separation of pure from impure.

Fimus equinus. A digestion term whose listed means extend beyond horse dung.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 7; facsimile PDF page 335 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Arthoicnm ; compare Digestio, Fimus equinus

See also. Digestio; Fimus equinus