From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordSeparation by straining through a named medium.
- In the bookExtractum names what is taken from a bodily concretion while grossness remains behind.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 22; facsimile PDF page 350.
Historical definition
Filtratio is straining a thing through woollen cloth, paper, or the like.
Meaning
The entry defines the operation through the action of straining and gives woollen cloth and paper as examples of its medium. The closing “and the like” leaves room for other materials serving that function. It does not specify what is strained or which portion an author intends to retain.
That last distinction matters in reading an operational passage. A separation can draw attention to what passes through, what stays behind, or both. The dictionary’s short gloss does not decide the value of either part for every work.
Use in the book
Extractum names what is taken from a bodily concretion while grossness remains behind. Digestio also concerns a separation of pure from impure, but through a different explanatory model. These comparisons show a shared interest in discrimination without making straining equivalent to every form of extraction or purification.
Places to read
In this edition
The edition retains the stated media and leaves mesh, grade and apparatus unspecified. Those details would belong to a particular historical description, not this general definition.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 22; facsimile PDF page 350 — Facsimile