_How a Medicinal Water may be Distilled from =Jupiter= and
=Mercury=, by the benefit of Fulmination, or a sudden Flaming
Fire._
Make an _Amalgama_ of Tin and Mercury in equal weights: Mix this
_Amalgama_ with Sulphur, Tartar and Nitre mixt in equal parts, and
Grind them exactly upon a Stone, and then your Matter, with its Fulmen,
is fit for Distillation. Therefore, when you purpose to distill a
Medicinal Water from _Jupiter_ and _Mercury_, begin your Operation thus.
Against some Wall, set up five or six Glass Cucurbits, [or
Subliming-Pots of Earth glazed within] one above another, so as they
may exactly shut in one into another, and let the Junctures be firmly
closed with Paper and Starch, as I taught to be done in preparing
Spirit of Salt. The lowest Glass must have an Orifice in the side, into
which the neck of the Distillatory Vessel may be inserted. Which Vessel
must be made in form of a Box or Cabinet round, a span broad and high;
in the upper part thereof, which is to be filled with Sand, the Cover
may be included in such wise, as I taught in the Second Part of my
Philosophical Furnaces; yet below it must not be round, but plain; so
as standing out from some Bench it may be fitted to the Receivers. When
all Junctures of the Receivers shall be closed exactly, your Furnace
is compleat. Then, at one time put in no more of the Mixture into a
Crucible set in that Furnace, than one Ounce. From this (when you have
kindled it with a live Coal, and nimbly put on the Cover again) will be
excited a Fulmination, and flame suddenly penetrating, and with great
noise separating the Mercury from the Tin; in which separation, part of
the _Jupiter_ and _Mercury_ ascends in the form of a sowerish Water,
but another part in the Species of a subtile yellow Powder. When this
Fulmination ceaseth to fume, take out that Crucible, and put another in
his place: set fire of the Mixture in that, and let it burn as before;
and continue the same labour, taking out and putting in, as long as
any of the Mixture is left. Then take the Water distilled, together
with the Flores, out of the Recipients. That Water (when digested with
gentle heat for a sufficient time) is coagulated into a Medicinal Red
Salt. The Flores must be dried and fixed with fresh fulminating Matter,
and as before sublimed. Then again will ascend Water and Flores. All
the other Flores remain fixed in the Crucibles, which (reduced by
force of Fire and diligent Fusion) produce an hard Tin, which may be
cupellated by the help of _Saturn_, but vulgar Tin cannot bear this
Examen. This leaves somewhat behind it in the Crucible; yet not so much
Gold as covetous Men desire; but so much as renders the Medicinal Red
Salt acquirable without charge.
Ancient Poets, fabulizing touching this Work, have writ, that _Jupiter_
and _Mercury_ sought entertainment of _Philemon_ and his Wife _Baucis_,
as Persons contented with little, that from them they might receive
Meat and Drink liberally. Let him, who desires a more ample Information
of these things, peruse such Philosophers, that he may see how highly
this Work was esteemed by them. For, as we now said, _Jupiter_ and
_Mercury_ turn not into rich and proud Men, (who regard not Art, but
thirst after heaps of Gold, by which they may long continue their Pride
of life) but to the Lovers of Frugality onely, and into their House
bring their own Blessing with them.