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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 DictionaryImpurum alcali

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English Edition · Branch 244 of 740

Impurum alcali

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A Chymical Dictionary

p. 244

Impurum alcali

Salts solvents and liquid preparations · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A residue distinguished through the purification of alkali.

In the book. Alcali is salt extracted from ashes or calx by boiling in lye.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 27; facsimile PDF page 355.

Historical Definition

Impurum alcali is the scum removed from alkali when it is purified.

Meaning

The entry names what is taken away, rather than the purified alkali. Its identity is relative to that operation and its subject. The dictionary does not give a separate composition or a preparation under this name.

Use in the Book

Alcali is salt extracted from ashes or calx by boiling in lye. Extractum concerns what is taken from a bodily concretion while grossness remains behind. Those entries help a reader follow which portion is named at a stage of work. Impurum alcali specifically identifies the removed scum in this purification account.

Places to Read

Alcali. Salt defined through extraction from ash or calx.

Extractum. A selected product distinguished from bodily concretion and its gross remainder.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 27; facsimile PDF page 355 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Impurum alcali

See also. Alcali; Extractum

244

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.