The Golden Chain of Homer

Related passages: I.4, II.5.

Menstruum

Menstruum. A dissolving liquid or medium. It is selected according to the nature, degree of fixation and intended treatment of its subject.

Related passages: I.23, II.9, II.11.

Mercury

Mercurius Quecksilber. Either running mercury as a particular material or a mercurial principle, depending on context. The author explicitly questions identifying the universal metallic principle with ordinary running mercury.

Related passages: I.23, II.9, II.10.

Mineral Kingdom

Regnum minerale Mineralia. The kingdom of comparatively fixed materials, including ores and metals. The work treats it through vapours, salts, matrices, maturation and degrees of dissolution.

Related passages: I.15, I.23, II.4, II.9.

Motion

Bewegung Motus. The activity through which warmth and transformation are explained. Its presence may be inferred even where a body seems outwardly at rest.

Related passages: I.9.

Native Heat

Calor nativus Eingepflantzte Wärme. The innate heat sustaining a body’s activity. Its loss helps explain the author’s account of the transition from preservation to decay.

Related passages: II.2, II.3.

Nature

Natur Natura. The created world and its beings, also spoken of as an operative order. The author distinguishes nature from its Creator while treating natural processes as connected.

Related passages: I.1, I.2.

Nitre

Nitrum Salpeter. A principal named material and active pole in the universal theory. Saltpetre in a procedure and universal nitre in an argument need to be distinguished by context.

Related passages: I.10, I.11, I.12.

Nourishment

Nutrimentum Nahrung. What a being draws in and transforms into its own condition. Nourishment connects the three kingdoms and the passage between mineral, vegetable and animal forms.

Related passages: I.6, I.21, I.22, I.23.

Oil

Oleum Oehl. A relatively concentrated principle placed in a reversible relation with acid. The name covers products from different kingdoms and operations.

Related passages: I.19, II.5, II.6.

Patient

Patiens. The receptive subject acted upon, especially water or an embodied matrix in relation to an active spirit. It is a technical role, not a medical patient.

Related passages: I.2, I.4, I.10.

Perfection

Perfectio Vollkommenheit. The attainment or completion toward which a process is directed in the author’s scheme. It must be interpreted through the particular substance and stage under discussion.

Related passages: PRE03, I.23, II.5.

Philosophers’ Stone

Lapis Philosophorum. The celebrated perfected product and universal medicine discussed in the text. The author’s promises and distinctions concerning it should be read as historical claims.

Related passages: PRE03, II.10.

Phlegm

Phlegma. The watery, relatively weak portion separated in a distillation. The work argues that water apparently deprived of power can still retain an implanted spirit.

Related passages: II.5, II.6.

Pores

Pori Poros. Passages through which moisture, vapours and active principles are said to enter or leave a body. Their opening and closing help explain change and decay.

Related passages: I.22, II.3.

Precipitation

Præcipitatio Præcipitat. A separation in which material is brought down or deposited. Its products can become subjects of further treatment and sweetening.

Related passages: I.22, II.5.

Putrefaction

Putrefactio Fäulniß. Decay that opens a subject and releases or redistributes its principles. The author calls it a principal key to both generation and destruction.

Related passages: I.16, I.17, I.18, II.3.

Quintessence

Quinta essentia Quint Essenz. A perfected or concentrated product reached through the treatment of a subject’s principles. The book distinguishes universal discussion from quintessences of the three kingdoms.

Related passages: II.5, II.7, II.8, II.9.

Radical Moisture

Humidum radicale. The moisture intimately associated with a body’s life and preservation. It is distinguished from superfluous moisture that can be removed or lost.

Related passages: I.22, II.3, II.5.

Rainwater

Regen Wasser. The collected atmospheric subject chosen for the long analysis in Book II. Its putrefaction, separation and reunion are intended to exemplify the universal account.

Related passages: I.10, II.5.

Recolaceum

Aqua recolacea Recolaceum. The watery distillate described as weak or apparently depleted. The text examines why it is separated and what relation its remaining spirit has to its use.

Related passages: II.5, II.6.

Rectification

Rectificatio Rectificiren. Repeated purification or further distillation that orders the products by their relative subtlety and removes an unwanted portion.

Related passages: II.5, II.10.

Regeneration

Regeneratio Wiedergebährung. A renewed coming-to-be after dissolution or separation. It can concern chaotic water, an individual form or the reunion of prepared principles.

Related passages: I.5, II.5.

Regulus

Regulus. A prepared metallic or mineral portion discussed in operative contexts. Its exact identity follows the named material and process, rather than one universal modern definition.

Related passages: I.23, II.9.

Root

Wurtzel Radix. The plant’s fixed and attracting part, also used by analogy for the first effective matter of another kingdom. Vitriol is described as a mineral root.

Related passages: I.22, I.23.

Salt

Sal Saltz. A central bodily and receptive principle, and a family of named materials. The book’s general account of salt must be distinguished from references to a particular salt.