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Related passages: I.10, I.12, I.19.
Saturation
Sättigung. The degree to which a dissolving medium has taken up material. The discussion of solution relates its effectiveness to the medium’s condition and capacity.
Related passages: II.10.
Seed
Semen Sperma Same. A generative principle by which a nature develops or reproduces. Universal seed and the specified seed of an individual have different places in the account.
Related passages: I.3, I.4, I.20, I.21.
Separation
Separatio Scheidung. The distinction or removal of a subject’s portions through operations. The order of separation governs the proper order of subsequent conjunction.
Soul
Anima Seele. A mediating or animating principle in the work’s vocabulary. It should be read beside spirit and body without assuming that every occurrence carries the same psychological meaning.
Specification
Specificatio Specificiren. The determination of a universal or common principle into a particular nature, kingdom or individual. It explains how shared origins can yield distinct forms.
Related passages: I.3, I.20, II.7.
Spirit
Spiritus Geist. An active, mobile or subtle principle working through a bodily vehicle. Its relation to soul and body varies with the scale and operation being described.
Related passages: I.2, I.10, II.6.
Spirit of Wine
Spiritus vini. The volatile spirit obtained from wine and used in operations of conjunction and sweetening. It also provides an example for the author’s theory of principles.
Related passages: I.19, II.10.
Spiritus Mundi
Spiritus mundi Welt Geist. The spirit of the world whose activity links natural things. The work seeks its bodily manifestations in the relation of nitre, salt, water and generated forms.
Sublimation
Sublimatio Sublimiren. An upward movement or operation involving a subtle material. The distinction between sublimation and merely making a substance subtler is sometimes textually significant.
Related passages: I.4, I.9, I.22.
Subtle
Subtil Subtilis. Fine, mobile or capable of passing through an intervening condition. The book explains the elements and separated portions through graded subtlety.
Sulphur
Sulphur Schwefel. A named mineral material and a principle associated with oil or an embodied combustible component. Its meaning must be established from the local operation.
Superfluous Moisture
Humidum superfluum. Moisture exceeding what is required to preserve a form. It can become a means of decay, although water still functions as a vehicle of active spirit.
Related passages: I.23, II.3, II.6.
Terra Styptica
Terra styptica. An astringent earth discussed in relation to chalk and the reception of a corrosive. The work defines it through its preparation and action.
Related passages: I.23.
Three Kingdoms
Animalia Vegetabilia Mineralia. Animals, plants and minerals, connected through common principles but distinguished by their specific forms and degrees of volatility and fixity.
Related passages: I.13, I.14, I.15, II.7, II.8, II.9.
Tincture
Tinctura Tinctur. A prepared extract, colouring principle or effective essence whose specific sense depends on its source and preparation.
Universal
Universale Universal. Common to the generated order or to a broad class before its determination into a particular form. The word does not make every individual material interchangeable.
Urine
Urina Urin. An animal material through which the author investigates the relation of excretion, salt and the powers of a living body. Its operative discussion is historical.
Related passages: II.7, II.10.
Vapour
Dampff Vapor. The mobile form through which water, influences and effluences circulate. Vapours connect the cosmological account with familiar observations of evaporation and condensation.
Vegetable Kingdom
Regnum vegetabile Vegetabilia. Plants considered as a kingdom intermediate between minerals and animals. Their roots, nourishment, seeds and transformations receive an extended treatment.
Related passages: I.14, I.22, II.3, II.8.
Vehicle
Vehiculum. A carrier or medium through which a principle can be conveyed or act. Water is the principal example in the discussion of spirit.
Vinegar
Acetum Eßig. A vegetable acid and mediating material used in conjunction and sweetening. Its strength and preparation matter to the particular operation.
Related passages: I.19, II.10.
Vitrification
Vitrificatio. The formation of glass or a glasslike state, used to discuss an especially durable and fixed condition.
Vitriol
Vitriolum Vitriol. A mineral salt and, in the author’s theory, a root or formative stage of mineral bodies. Historical usage does not support the same modern identification in every occurrence.
Related passages: I.15, I.23, II.9.
Volatile
Volatile Flüchtig. Able to rise or pass away under an operation, relatively to a more fixed part. Volatility has degrees and can itself be altered.
Related passages: PRE02, I.19, I.20.
Water
Wasser Aqua. The receptive body and vehicle through which spirit works. The name ranges from primordial and regenerated chaotic water to particular collected or separated waters; the context determines its scale.
Related passages: I.2, I.8, II.5.
Weight
Pondus Gewicht. The proportion or measured quantity governing the conjunction of principles. Its role must be distinguished from the modern assumption that a single quantity suits every material.
Related passages: II.5.
Wine
Vinum Wein. A vegetable material whose spirit, acid and fixed parts provide repeated examples for separation, conjunction and the preparation of a quintessence.