20 What the Universal and Particular Volatile, Acid and Alkali Are

Chapter outline

The three principles are named by their relative volatility, fixedness and order of separation.

Acid is the necessary mediator between the upper and lower principles.

Successive products of the analytical fire are compared in universal, animal, vegetable and mineral subjects.

The account of the whole world now gives way to individual kingdoms and their life cycles.

In the preceding chapter we explained how the volatile becomes acid and acid alkali, principally and generally from regenerated rainwater. Now we shall explain what these parts are. The term volatile is familiar: it means a volatile being. We call it this because it is the subtlest and most volatile water or being in everything, in universals as well as specifics and individuals. In the fiery anatomy it is obtained first, before its succeeding principles, whether it then takes liquid, dry or coagulated form. We call acid by that name because it comes after the volatile and commonly gives our tongue and nose a sour taste and smell. We have demonstrated that among universals it is nitre, whether coagulated or made into a spirit. This acid is also called an intermediate thing, a hermaphrodite, a middle nature between volatile and alkali, between volatile and fixed. In the totality of principles it is always obtained after the volatile and before the alkali; it therefore stands in the middle and has the quality and property of a middle nature. It readily associates with the volatile and also attaches itself to the alkali to which it is added. Without this middle nature—take note—no volatile becomes fixed or enduring, and no alkali, or fixed thing, can become volatile without it. Volatile and alkali must necessarily be reconciled and put in order through acid. They accept it as a third party or arbitrator; whoever bypasses it will learn wisdom through loss. We call alkali fixed because it is more enduring in fire than what precedes it, and is the third and last principle in everything. It may appear to us in coagulated, spirituous, liquid or dry form. If it shows an alkaline effect, it is called alkali or alkaline salt. Even when driven over into a spirit, it can instantly become fixed again with a fixed substance like itself.

We shall now indicate what volatile, acid and alkali are as principal parts performing every action in universals and individuals. In universals—dew, rain, snow, hail and hailstones—the volatile obtained in analysis and distillation after prior putrefaction is a very subtle, bright, clear, tasteless, volatile water. As distillation continues, a coarser and heavier water always follows close behind it. After this water comes acid with its sour taste, followed by a thick, stinking oil that also belongs to the acid. Acid is an expanded oil and oil a condensed acid; oil mixed with chalk or colcothar and distilled can also become an acid. Nothing further follows. A black substance burned to charcoal remains at the bottom, commonly called the dead head by chymists. When burned to ashes by fire it is separated into two parts, salt and ashes, called alkali. Ashes also belong to alkali, for ashes and salt make the subject most enduring in fire: glass. Ash is the most fixed part of every subject, followed by salt.

After putrefaction, animals commonly yield in distillation first a strong, volatile, stinking, highly penetrating spirit and volatile salt, with phlegm. Often, when strongly distilled, this carries up a volatile oil too: this is called the volatile in animals. Continued distillation yields a coarser phlegm, followed by a strong, sour, stinking spirit or animal acid, then its fetid oil. Charcoal or the alkaline part remains at the bottom; reverberation makes alkaline salt and ashes from it. After fermentation vegetables yield a volatile, burning spirit with its phlegm and often a subtle oil: this is the vegetable volatile. A coarse phlegm follows, then a truly sour vinegar and a thick, stinking oil: this is the acid. Matter burned to charcoal remains at the bottom. Reverberation divides it into ashes and salt: this is the vegetable alkali.

Minerals fresh from the mine, when distilled, give a little phlegmatic, sweet water with a sour spirit: this is the mineral volatile. A sour vapour follows, commonly called an oil by chymists, just as they call the first product a spirit. This is acid, the second principle. Although oil and spirit are both acids, chymists distinguish them by a difference of quality. Afterward an earth remains as residue at the bottom, varying in colour according to the mineral. Reverberation separates it into two distinct parts, earth and salt: this is the alkaline part of minerals. We can finally see from this what the great world with all its parts arose from and how; what principles it had at the beginning; into what parts it afterward divided, how many there are, and how they are distinguished into different kingdoms; what they do and intend, and to what end. This has been in general and universally. We shall now descend to specifics and individuals, from the greater to the lesser, considering their birth and origin, middle and end: animals, vegetables and minerals. We shall give each kingdom its own chapter and examine it from beginning to end.