Cabasset-shaped vessel and rejected alembic

Meaning

The Cabacet is a helmet-like form invoked for a particular vessel. The author rejects the glass alembic interpretation at this local point and instead describes a narrow lower and much wider upper shape in well-fired earth.

II.4.33 reads Jason's fiery bulls and related narrative as problems of apparatus and controlled action. The stated purpose of the air passages includes keeping the fire from suffocation; the author reports losing eight of nine vessels. These details establish the passage's concern with material constraints and failure, but should not be assembled into performance instructions. The rejection of glass or iron is qualified by “in this place,” not a prohibition of those materials in every operation elsewhere in the book. Cabasset names the visual comparison, not a confidently identified modern device.

The printed Cabacet is retained, with cabasset as a meaningful English lookup. The new English preserves the local restriction and the rejected interpretation, rather than replacing the description with a generic alembic.