Balm of bodies

Meaning

II.1.5 calls the concealed fire within the salt of bodies their balm. The word emphasizes preservation: amid the destructive appearance of burning, a tempered, incombustible power is said to sustain what remains. Moist vapour and moderated heat keep this fire from being merely the consuming flame visible outside the body. The balm-name gathers three claimed effects, giving life, increasing it and preserving it, through moist vapour accompanied by temperate heat.

Balm is thus a functional image, not an identified ointment or botanical ingredient. The passage calls fire the father and multiplier of salt, whereas II.3.22 later explicitly denies that fire generates the residual salt. Both formulations must remain available to the reader. The preservative image does not remove that source tension or establish the medical effectiveness of an extracted residue.