Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici

Name: Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici
Author: Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement

Treatises on the True Salt and the Universal Spirit of the World

Explore the Lexicon

Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi PhilosophiciBook Three

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Page · Branch 204 of 251

Book Three

Book Mode

French

1621 pp. 329–331 · scans FR333, FR334, FR339

Ce qui a privé la medecine ordinaire d'operer puissamment comme la spagirique à l'encontre des maladies fixes & rebelles, non pource que ses professeurs ne soient grandement doctes; mais parce que son fondement n'est point assis au centre des choses, ains en la seule superficie. Comme pour exemple, quand ils usent de la decoction de racines d'Avoyne seiches pour soulager les affligez du Calcul, (à quoy elles sont veritablement fort propres, ainsi que je l'ay veu pratiquer au docte Pena,) & ne s'avisent pas d'extraire de ce simple ce qui luy cause tel effect. Lequel tiré & preparé artistement, pris en petite quantité, donneroit garison parfaite, au lieu de simple soulagement. D'autant que sans s'amuser au vulgaire axiome qui veut que le contraire garisse le contraire; la pierre ou le Calcul estant endurci dans les corps par le Sel qui est l'unique coagulateur, il doit estre curé par le sel des individus que le Ciel a douez de faculté proprement efficace & particuliere contre ce mal. Alors sera vraiment guary le contraire par son contraire, encore que l'on ait appliqué le sel contre un mal procedant du Sel, qui sont deux semblables, mais leurs effects sont differens: car l'huille de Sel dissout toutes pierres que le Sel avoit endurcies: si bien que l'un force l'autre de luy ceder. Ne plus ne moins qu'il se void experimenter à ceux qui s'estant bruslez les doigts les r'approchent & tiennent le plus pres du feu qu'ils peuvent endurer, afin que la plus grande chaleur dissipant la moindre, la douleur vienne à s'apaiser. Tout ce que la paresse des Phisiciens vulgaires objecte contre ces remedes nouveaux pour eux, c'est de les nommer corrosifs, & partant tres pernicieux à prendre par dedans. Ce que je leur concederois facilement s'ils estoient pris seuls & en quantité excessive. Mais ceux qui les sçavent prendre & donner se mocquent de tels discours.

Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici: Book Three

1621 pp. 329–331 · scans FR333, FR334, FR339

This has deprived ordinary medicine of the power to act against fixed and stubborn diseases as spagyric medicine does. It is not because its practitioners lack great learning, but because its foundation is set at the surface of things rather than their centre. For example, they use a decoction of dried oat roots to relieve those afflicted with stones. The roots are indeed well suited to this, as I have seen the learned Pena demonstrate in practice. Yet they do not think to extract from this simple the thing which causes that effect. Once extracted and skilfully prepared, it would, taken in a small quantity, give a perfect cure instead of mere relief. Without dwelling upon the common axiom that contrary cures contrary, the stone or calculus, hardened in bodies by salt, the sole coagulating agent, must be treated by the salt of those particular things which Heaven has endowed with an efficacious faculty specifically directed against this disease. Contrary will then truly be cured by contrary, although salt has been applied against an illness proceeding from salt. The two are alike, but their effects differ: oil of salt dissolves all stones which salt had hardened, so that one forces the other to yield. It is just as is seen in those who, after burning their fingers, bring them back and hold them as close to the fire as they can bear, so that the greater heat, dispersing the lesser, may cause the pain to subside. All that the indolence of ordinary physicians objects against these remedies, which are new to them, is to call them corrosive and therefore most harmful to take internally. I would readily concede this if they were taken alone and in excessive quantity. But those who know how to take and administer them laugh at such talk.

275.Spagyric medicine is the author’s name for medicine based on the separation, preparation and recombination of a material’s active principles. ‘Simple’ means a medicinal substance considered individually, here the oat root. The identity of Pena is not established from this passage alone.

276.This paragraph records historical therapeutic claims, including the proposed use of corrosive preparations and a harmful analogy about burns. It supplies neither present-day medical advice nor evidence of safety or efficacy. The author’s small-quantity qualification is retained without adding a dose or a modern substance identification.

277.Oil of salt is retained as the historical expression. Although some later uses of the name refer to an acid preparation, this passage does not provide enough preparation detail to identify a single modern reagent with confidence.

About This Reading Edition

The complete French text of 1621 with a new English translation, all three books, preliminary texts, nine concluding sonnets, original errata, 299 annotations and the complete supplied study apparatus.

Historical Text and Translation

Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement, Traittez de l’harmonie et constitution generalle du vray sel, secret des Philosophes, & de l’Esprit universelle du Monde. Paris: Jérémie Périer and Abdias Buisard, 1621. The governing witness is the BnF/Gallica reproduction, ark:/12148/bpt6k656273. The reproduced privilege is dated 6 November 1620; the separate eighty-page Poème philosophic of 1620 is outside this edition.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The historical text printed in 1621 is in the public domain. The supplied 2026 French reading text, new English translation, introduction, notes and complete study apparatus are published with the site owner’s authorization.