A further objection will arise here, and someone will say: he establishes only two principles, namely aqua recolacea and the spirit or seed hidden within it. If aqua recolacea alone is to be separated, the whole globe—mountains, stone, rocks, meadows, fields, and earth—is nothing but coagulated spirit, seed, and generative matter. Answer: whoever will not believe that the point of earth is pure generative matter should take earth wherever and of whatever kind he wishes—the nearest will do—and simply leach out the salt, so that the spiritual corrosive seed does not consume itself to death upon it; then dry the earth and heat it a little to redness. Note its weight and pour spirit of nitre or aqua fortis upon it. If that does not attack it, add spirit of salt until it is entirely dissolved. Then draw off the spirit, and at the bottom you will find some salty, white, corrosive earth, which through the first or primordial spirit has returned to its earlier condition, namely salt. Now consider whether such earth is a terra damnata, a condemned earth, or dregs. Here, however, I must explain a point or knot on which all chymists stumble. When they handle aqua fortis, aqua regia, spirit of salt, and so forth, intending to dissolve minerals with them, and these solvents—especially aqua regia—do not attack them, or attack them far too little, they say that the solvent is spoiled or useless, although they spoil it themselves. Suppose, for instance, they wish to dissolve gold: they mix eight loth of sal ammoniac or spirit of salt into one pound of aqua fortis. If the aqua fortis is strong and contains little water, it dissolves the gold well; but if there is little aqua fortis and too much water, it leaves the gold untouched or dissolves very little. There lies the trouble.

But suppose someone wishes to dissolve a sulphurous solar ore, such as solar marcasite, gold pyrites, gold sulphur, and so forth. Even when the aqua regia is fairly strong, it will scarcely dissolve half, a third, or even an eighth here, although previously it dissolved the gold completely. What is the cause? This: aqua fortis is an acid, whereas spirit of salt or sal ammoniac is an alkali. It is well known that when acid and alkali come together, they kill, precipitate, dulcify, and fix one another, and thus produce a third salt or corrosive. In the liquid state this lacks the power to attack a hard body; when coagulated, it fixes more than it dissolves. If one pound of aqua fortis is weak and contains much water, it consumes, precipitates, and fixes itself quite to death upon the eight loth of sal ammoniac or spirit of salt and attacks almost nothing. If it is strong, it does attack, but the alkali is still too much. This is seen when one tries to dissolve stony marcasite with it. It certainly prefers to attack gold, since gold is a body refined free of all stoniness and sulphurousness, and separated from all gangue. But marcasite and pyrites, however cleanly one washes away the gangue upon the dressing surface, retain their stony mother throughout their smallest parts. The acid fixes or consumes itself to death upon this, as upon the marcasite’s sulphur, and consequently does not attack it, so that it gives no further satisfaction in extraction or dissolution. For the more a body has been dried out and separated from all moisture, the less a moist substance can act within it, unless corresponding moisture is nevertheless awakened again in that same degree as a medium, as practice teaches.

Take one pound of aqua fortis and eight loth of spirit of salt, pour them together, and gently draw them over in a retort in ashes until they have a fairly oily consistency. Set this in cold water and allow it to crystallize: crystals will form, and these are regenerated nitre, for aqua fortis is nitrous acid and spirit of salt is a spiritual alkali. Thus one sees that the acid coagulates and fixes itself upon the alkali, and that the acid’s sharpness is thereby broken so that it can no longer attack so strongly. The same applies to sal ammoniac or common salt. Draw one pound of aqua fortis off eight loth of sal ammoniac or common salt through a retort in ashes; then take out the caput mortuum and compare their tastes upon the tongue. You will find that the sal ammoniac has retained much sharpness from the aqua fortis; and by as much sharpness as the aqua fortis has lost upon the sal ammoniac, by so much has it become weaker or broken, so that it can no longer attack as strongly.

Again, one should know that aqua fortis consumes itself to death upon marcasites. Dissolve marcasite in aqua regia, and when it dissolves no more, pour it off completely. Pour well water upon the residue, set it in warmth, and let it boil a little. Then pour off the water, filter, and coagulate until thoroughly dry. You will obtain a salty earth or a salt formed from the aqua regia and marcasite, which has consumed itself to death and consequently has not dissolved enough. But to make aqua regia and similar menstrua dissolve more, and in the usual manner, one must indeed apply them to alkalized subjects and sharpen them with an alkali, but not so much that the acid consumes itself quite to death upon it. Suppose, for example, I take four loth or only two of sal ammoniac for a strong pound of aqua fortis, let it digest gently in sand or ashes for a day and a night, and then either distil it gently over or apply it directly to dissolution. In this way I dissolve nearly two or three times as much as another does with a weakened solvent. Someone will ask why sal ammoniac or spirit of salt must be put into aqua fortis when the aqua fortis is already very strong. The reason is this. I have said that all minerals are made from the universal acid, but that this makes the inferior metals much sooner than the perfect ones. For the acid has not yet been so strongly fixed, alkalized, or made earthly as in gold and solar subjects, so that the acid still predominates in part or entirely, although one is always more strongly fixed than another. Since such imperfect metals and minerals are still acids, one acid readily attacks the other. On the other hand, upon alkalized and strongly fixed minerals it either consumes itself quite to death or does not attack them at all. Since these too must be attacked and dissolved, an alkali is added to the aqua fortis so that its like may be awakened by it. Once the fixed alkali is awakened, with the acid’s assistance it separates its own bonds and through such awakening readily inclines to return to an acid. For everything volatile desires to become an acid, and what is acid wishes to become alkaline or fixed; conversely, what is alkaline wishes to become acid again, and this intends to become volatile again, so that the highest becomes the lowest and the lowest the highest in an everlasting chain. Just as alkali dissolves correspondingly alkaline subjects, it does not dissolve acids: it only makes them swell and does not dissolve them completely. The reason is that alkali is not so penetratingly subtle, but has a fatty earthiness within it which prevents it from allowing the acid through its pores. Even when it attacks, it consumes itself to death and merely corrodes the material so that it falls to dust or swells like a sponge.

Someone will now say: if the alkali is awakened by an alkali such as spirit of sal ammoniac and so forth, there is a contradiction here, for the alkali would then be strengthened and would consume the acid to death just as before. Answer: by the term alkali I do not mean only the volatilized and fixed alkaline salts, such as all volatile animal alkalis, sal ammoniac, and fixed alkaline earth. As I have said, if aqua fortis contains much volatile or fixed alkali, it consumes itself to death all the more and all the sooner before it can dissolve. But when the aqua fortis has taken up only a little and a smaller amount of alkali, it dissolves all the more and acts through all the pores that much more than before, when the alkaline salt had oversaturated it. For dissolution depends solely upon the saturation of the menstruum, its pores being filled by the expanded and dissolved subject. The emptier the pores, the more the menstruum can contain and dissolve; conversely, the fuller they are, the less it takes up. Since too much sal ammoniac, salt, or spirit of salt fills the aqua fortis, or its pores, far too full with its subtle alkaline earth before it comes to dissolve a marcasite, not many pores can remain empty. It takes up only as much as there are pores still empty. From this one clearly sees the error and difference among many practitioners. For in the lower kingdom nature does indeed make an acid from the volatile, and an alkali from the acid. Even if a piece seems entirely volatile, it nevertheless has its portion of acid and alkali within it, although the volatile predominates, since the acid and alkali cannot yet predominate. But if the acid has the upper hand, it associates again with its like and readily takes another acid to itself. Likewise, when alkali has the upper hand, although it is mixed with alkali and acid, yet because alkali predominates it loves its like and wishes to be treated by its like. The practitioner must note this if he wishes to escape many errors. From this anyone may now construct his counterarguments; and if through frailty I have erred somewhere, let him correct me gently, provided he has a better ground in theory and still more in practice. Everyone is free and unhindered to extend, correct, add to, enlarge, and expand this little account of nature.