A Chymical Dictionary

Relloleum

Qualities powers and relations · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A distinction between a manifest quality and an occult virtue.

In the book. Qualitas supplies the relevant sense of complexion.

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 40; facsimile PDF page 368.

Historical Definition

Relloleum is a virtue arising from complexion. In St John’s wort, for example, the first virtue is in heat and is healing; the other is accidental and hidden, preserving against worms and corruption.

Meaning

The example separates two ways of explaining a plant’s powers. Heat belongs to complexion, the mixture of qualities. Another virtue is called accidental and occult. Accidental here qualifies its relation to that account; the entry still attributes definite effects to it.

Use in the Book

Qualitas supplies the relevant sense of complexion. Reading the articles together prevents heat and occult virtue from collapsing into one explanation. The named plant serves as the compiler’s example of this distinction.

Places to Read

Qualitas. The balance of hot, cold, dry and moist qualities.

In This Edition

Healing and preservation are historical claims in the definition. They are retained as claims of the text, without assigning modern evidence or a modern mechanism to the obscure headword.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 40; facsimile PDF page 368 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Relloleum; 1650 facsimile PDF p. 368; compare Qualitas

See also. Qualitas