Bier

Use in the book

At II.117.2 the water tastes pleasant and resembles whey in colour. When mixed with wine it becomes purple. The narrator corrects his first phrasing: more exactly, the water is coloured with the wine rather than simply colouring the wine. This small correction shows attention to the description, but it does not settle the chemical cause of the colour.¹⁴⁷

Bier is then said to have placed the water in a furnace, removed it after considerable thickening, and found after cooling an extremely solid, transparent, somewhat green mass. In the surrounding discussion of precious stones, the account gives the author a case of an earthy or stony product arising from water. The report’s role is to support his proposed material relation between waters and mineral bodies. It is not a demonstration that the mass was a natural emerald under a modern classification.

The water returns in II.138.1 among the evidence invoked for mineral precursors. Mercury, Sulphur, Salt, mine vapours, colostrum and gur are explained as elements specified towards metals and minerals. The Bier account is made to support this wider conception of mineral water and unripe mineral matter. The move from the report to the general scheme belongs to the author’s argument.

At II.157.1 the same court physician is said to have added another detail: besides the transparent mass, Bier found a fine grain of gold at the bottom of the vessel. The author calls this bodily gold. It supports the distinction then being drawn between a particular product and the universal subject or medicine. A reported gold grain, even accepted on the author’s terms, would not by itself establish the possession of the universal tincture.

Places to read

1. Part II · II.117.2The narrated water, purple colour, furnace treatment and transparent green mass.
2. Part II · II.138.1Bier’s water is enlisted in the explanation of specified mineral precursors.
3. Part II · II.157.1The report is supplemented by a grain of bodily gold and applied to terrestrial waters.

Translation

Granum Solis literally names a grain of the Sun; the edition renders the metallurgical reference as a grain of gold. Serum lactis supplies a colour comparison, whey, not a claim that the water contains milk. Bierischen is a German adjectival form meaning associated with Bier. Retaining Bier’s water is more accurate than inventing the name of a modern mineral water.

Connections

This entry illustrates the distinction between Authority and testimony and Experience and conjecture. Bier’s reported operation supplies a particular case, while the anonymous writer interprets it through his own elemental scheme. Keeping those stages separate helps readers assess the book’s evidence without either treating every report as established fact or dismissing its argumentative role.

Cautions

The starting place remains unnamed, the substance is unidentified, and the products were not analytically established by the edition. The account should not become a preparation recipe, a claim of verified transmutation or a reason to equate all green transparent masses with emerald.

Dr. Bier

Dr. Bier — Form as printed in the cited passage; the headword supplies the reading name. II.117.2.

Bierischen Wasser

Bierischen Wasser — Form as printed in the cited passage; the headword supplies the reading name. II.138.1.

granum Solis

granum Solis — Form as printed in the cited passage; the headword supplies the reading name. II.157.1.

Serum lactis

Serum lactis — Form as printed in the cited passage; the headword supplies the reading name. II.117.2.