From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordMelting understood through the example of metals.
- In the bookFusio is the close parallel: it means melting or making something flow in fire.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 17; facsimile PDF page 345.
Historical definition
Colliquation is melting, as metals are melted.
Meaning
The metal example fixes the sense of a word that might otherwise be mistaken for any passage into a liquid condition. It describes melting, rather than the dictionary’s distinct account of dissolving a coagulated body in a cold place.
Use in the book
Fusio is the close parallel: it means melting or making something flow in fire. Deliquium names cold dissolution. Read together, the entries encourage attention to how a material becomes liquid, without supplying temperatures or a universal scheme of physical states.
Places to read
- ColliquationRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- DeliquiumDissolution of a coagulated body in a cold setting.
- FusioAn operation defined by melting and flow in fire.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 17; facsimile PDF page 345 — Facsimile