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4. Of plants.
Plants in their separation give waters, oils, juices, resins, gums, electuaries, powders, ashes, mercury, sulphur and salt, and so forth. Animals in their separation give water, blood, flesh, fat, bones, skin, body, hair, mercury, sulphur and salt, and so forth.
What makes a good separator.
Whoever boasts of being a separator of all natural things of this kind needs long experience and perfect knowledge of them all. Moreover, he must be a skilled and practised alchemist, so that he knows what is combustible and what is not, what is fixed and what volatile, what melts and what does not, and what is heavier than something else. He must also have investigated each thing’s natural colour, smell, acidity, astringency, sharpness, bitterness, sweetness, degree, complexion and quality.
The kinds and number of stages of separation, and what is separated by distillation, dissolution, putrefaction and extraction.
Calcination. Reverberation.
Sublimation.
Reduction.
Coagulation. Pulverisation.
Tossing.
He must also know the stages of separation: distillation, dissolution, putrefaction, extraction, calcination, reverberation, sublimation, reduction, coagulation, pulverisation and washing. Distillation separates water and oil from all bodily things. Dissolution separates metals from minerals, one metal from another, salt from other things, and fat and the light from the heavier. Putrefaction separates the fat from the lean, the pure from the impure and the putrid from the unputrid. Extraction separates the pure from the impure, spirit and quintessence from their body, and the pearl from the gross. Calcination separates watery moisture, fat, natural colour, smell and anything else combustible. Reverberation separates colour, smell, combustibles, all moisture, wateriness, fat, and finally anything fusible and unstable in a thing. Sublimation separates fixed from volatile, spiritual from bodily, pure from impure, sulphur from salt, mercury from salt, and so forth. Reduction separates the fusible from the solid, metal from its mineral, one metal from another, metal from slag, and fat from what is not fatty. Coagulation separates dampness from the moist and water from earth. Pulverisation separates dust from sand, ash from calx, and mineral from vegetable and animal matter. All powders of unequal weight are also separated by tossing, as chaff is separated from grain. Washing or ablution separates ash from sand, a mineral from its metal, the heavy from the lighter, vegetable and animal from the mineral part, sulphur from mercury and salt, and salt from mercury.
The manifold separation of metals.