The philosophers also say: our solvent and dissolved matter must remain together, either both volatile or both fixed. Secondly, the solvent must be homogeneous with the dissolved matter; indeed, it must be a mineral menstruum of universal presence, one that conforms to each and every thing. This is doubted in the case of aqua fortis and spirit of vitriol. Answer: I have already taught that solvent and dissolved matter remain together. That nitre, salt, and their spirits are homogeneous with all subjects has been proved above, for all universals are homogeneous with the specifics, and the specifics with the universals, as has been demonstrated and is known to everyone. That it is a mercurial of universal presence can be recognized from its universality. Someone will again say: suppose we allow that nitre and salt are universally present and universal in relation to all specifics; vitriol, on the other hand, is a pure acid and a mixture, which seems contrary to the universal mercurial menstruum, because vitriol has more sulphur than mercury. That vitriol is a first being of minerals has been proved above. That it has mercury, sulphur, and salt is known to all practitioners. But that it is more sulphurous than mercurial cannot prevent its action, for all subjects come from sulphur; and all this scrupling matters nothing, provided it produces its effect. Moreover, how many authors establish vitriol as the first matter of metals just as they do mercury? They have even recommended it as the matter of the stone, as that saying goes: “By visiting the interior of the earth,” and so forth. If, then, vitriol is the first matter of metals, after its dissolution it must have the power to reduce metals to their first condition, and it must be homogeneous with all minerals. If it is the matter of the stone, it is the extract or quintessence of all minerality. It is also known that saltpetre and salt are a universal subject, which many recommend as the natural subject in all things, calling it all in all because it is found everywhere. Because it is universal, it is a subject indifferent to receiving any form or specification. In vitriol they become specified, become one with it, and remain with it both volatile and fixed; whatever they dissolve they again make volatile and fixed, and it remains inseparably with them. Whoever thinks to separate it from them separates the volatile part, while the fixed nevertheless remains. For one seed gladly remains with another, especially the specific and universal, and they let the aqua recolacea depart from them.

It is therefore foolish of some erring laboratory workers to think that they thoroughly separate the menstrua by abstraction or removal along with water, and by burning away or digestion through spirit of wine. They need only taste the menstruum drawn off to see whether they do not find it nearly half as weak; they will discover this still sooner if they wish to dissolve fresh subjects with it, for then it is too weak for them. Simply inspect the dissolved bodies and weigh them before and after dissolution to see the difference in weight. For everything that is to become fixed attaches itself to an earth, as all acids do; and everything that is to become volatile rises upward. No amount of disputing can deny or conceal this, however theory or practice may agree with it.

I tell you outright: when someone says or writes that he has a menstruum from dew or rainwater, these are vain, self-glorifying speculations, sweet words that lead a poor seeker into nothing but wrong paths, the consumption of time, and the waste of the little money he still has. They sweep his purse clean in a most unchristian and unconscientious manner, so that in his sorrow he often dies of it. Examine the menstrua and divide them into four parts: volatiles, acids, alkalis, or mixtures and compounds of these. It is certain that all volatiles, such as dew and rain, spirit of wine, or even a volatile that still has an acid with it, become so little tinged and saturated by the subject that a whole bucket would be needed to dissolve only one pound. Even when it has dissolved that pound, this is no dissolution, but only a dispersal and expansion of the atoms; it is no better than before, except that it is subtler and prepared. If one takes vinegar or a vegetable or animal acid, these do attack more strongly than spirit of wine and urine or a highest volatile; but what subjects? No stone, no alkalized mineral. Subjects already full of acid or strongly filled with acid are easy for it to dissolve. Yet their dissolving is pitiful, God have mercy! With ten pounds of distilled wine acid I do not dissolve one pound of copper or iron, although they are quite open; whereas with two to three pounds of spirit of salt or nitre, spirit of vitriol, or oil of sulphur, I intend to dissolve one pound of iron and still more copper, and then, immediately after abstraction, cast the dissolved matter back into its first matter—that is, make it into a vitriol. Conversely, when I draw off the acid, I have verdigris or crocus of iron in the residue, and little enough of that. An alkali reduced to a spirit does dissolve more; but without acid, mark well, all dissolution is almost an empty stroke in water.

Now let us join, strengthen, and mix the menstrua mentioned above with one another. Perhaps they might dissolve more than otherwise and be better than the bare sharp corrosives. Pour spirit of wine into the acid, or a volatile into the acid, or spirit of urine into its own acid, or all four together. Then pour this in sufficient quantity over a stone calcined in the customary way, or another tightly bound mineral, and see how much they will do. They will readily leave it alone. But pour them over an open subject, or one not so tightly bound, such as vitriol, alum, copper, iron, and so forth, and they will attack it immediately and produce a sugar-sweet vitriol. But how much of it from one pound? If you have poured on six pounds of menstruum, you scarcely dissolve one or two loth out of a pound of copper or iron. I am not speaking of vitriol and alum, for these are very readily soluble salts. There you have your powerful, corrosive menstruum! But if you pour a mineral acid, such as aqua fortis, spirit of salt, and so forth, into the corrosive, you kill the corrosive completely and make a third salt from it, which dissolves very little or nothing at all. Why will these and similar menstrua not dissolve? Because the farther and the more the corrosives are expanded, the weaker they become and the less they dissolve. Conversely, the more concentrated they are, the sharper and more violently they attack. Spirit of wine and the acid are expanded, diluted, extended corrosives, entirely filled with aqua recolacea. Even if rectification makes them fiery in themselves, a pound of them still does not do as much as one or two loth of phlegmatic aqua fortis. This will show itself in practice.

Take a most fiery spirit of wine and a most fiery rectified acid: three pounds of the spirit of wine, one pound of the acid, and one and a half pounds of salt of tartar. Pour the spirit of wine over the salt of tartar, then pour the acid upon it, set it in the water bath or ashes, and distil gently. The clearest, tasteless phlegm will pass over, almost in the former quantity that the spirit of wine and acid weighed. Weigh the phlegm and the remaining salt of tartar, which has retained the sharpness or volatile salt of the spirit of wine and acid. You will form enough conclusions for yourself that the power of so many pounds of spirit of wine and acid lay in only a few loth of sharpness or volatile salt. Conversely, pour one pound of dephlegmated aqua fortis or spirit of nitre over half a pound of salt of tartar. After drawing off the phlegm, you will find the salt of tartar increased or grown by half a pound, or at least a quarter. Now consider the difference between the solvents. If someone affirms that he has a tasteless solvent, it is a spirit of salt dissolved and mortified through its own or another acid and volatile. This seems to me just as if I poured salt and saltpetre together, let them crystallize, then dissolved them in dew or distilled rainwater and filtered them: it is precisely such a menstruum. Let him merely draw it off in the water bath or ashes; he will find a beautifully clarified middle salt or mortified acid, like a nitre. Even if he drives this over a hundred times, unless he concentrates it into a narrow compass so that the acid predominates, it is incapable of dissolving metals and so forth. It extracts so little from the sulphurs when the menstruum is drawn off that the trouble and labour become wearisome.