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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · English Edition

Gerhard Dorn and John French

A Chymical Dictionary

An Expanded Diotimos Lexicon of Paracelsian and Alchemical Language

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A Chymical DictionaryCauterium

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English Edition · Branch 318 of 740

Cauterium

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A Chymical Dictionary

p. 318

Cauterium

Operations instruments and practitioners · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A name shared by a burning instrument and a medicine credited with a similar effect.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342.

Historical Definition

Cauterium is a surgical instrument that opens the skin by burning. It is also a medicine said to produce the same effect without pain.

Meaning

The definition explicitly offers two kinds of agent: an instrument and a medicinal preparation. Their common point is the opening of the skin, but their described means differ. A reader must identify which kind the passage concerns before deciding what object or material is intended.

The painless effect attributed to the medicine is a claim of the historical entry, not a verified promise. The dictionary gives no formula or method for it. Preserving the two senses makes the passage clearer without turning an old gloss into an instruction for present-day treatment.

Places to Read

Escara. Dead flesh described as the result of a caustic action.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Cauterium ; compare Escara

See also. Escara

318

About This Reading Edition

The complete 706 historical definitions of the 1650 English dictionary, modernised and accompanied by expanded Diotimos commentary, reading routes, 15 textual notes and complete linked indexes.

Historical Text

A Chymicall Dictionary, London 1650, English version associated with John French, based on Gerhard Dorn’s Dictionarium Theophrasti Paracelsi. The containing volume also prints Sendivogius and Paracelsus; neither neighboring work changes this dictionary’s attribution.

About This Edition

Complete 706 definition paragraphs with new introduction, commentary, reading guides and indexes; Diotimos Editions, 2026.

Rights

The historical 1650 English text is in the public domain. New introduction, commentary, reading guides and indexes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions and published with the site owner’s authorization.