From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA philosophical solvent described as a mercurial water and Virgin’s Milk.
- In the bookCompare Aqua solvens, which the dictionary explicitly identifies as distilled vinegar, and Aqua permanens, which it describes through philosophical solution.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 1; facsimile PDF page 329.
Historical definition
Acetum Philosophorum is a mercurial water, also called Virgin’s Milk, in which, they say, metals are dissolved.
Meaning
The definition identifies the liquid through its association with Mercury and its reported action on metals. Its opening word resembles the familiar name of vinegar, but the rest of the entry directs the reader toward a particular philosophical preparation. The qualifying phrase “they say” belongs to the historical definition and preserves its distance from a demonstrated result.
For interpretation, the decisive questions are what the surrounding author calls Mercury and what kind of dissolution is being discussed. A passage about a common liquid and a passage about the return of a metal to its first matter need not describe the same operation.
Use in the book
Compare Aqua solvens, which the dictionary explicitly identifies as distilled vinegar, and Aqua permanens, which it describes through philosophical solution. Lac Virginis supplies another route into the milk vocabulary. These connections make a family of solvent terms without proving that all their preparations are interchangeable.
Places to read
- Acetum PhilosophorumRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- Aqua solvensA direct identification of a dissolving water as distilled vinegar.
- Aqua permanensA philosophical liquid defined through two perfected metallic starting bodies.
- Lac VirginisVirgin’s milk as a name for mercurial water.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 1; facsimile PDF page 329 — Facsimile