Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/103

 A L K

A L K

calls it alfo ignis aqua, fire Water, and latex, or clear water, reduced to the mmuteft atoms poflible ; and affirms, that all fubftanccs may be readily converted by it into a thin water : and, in other places, he calls it the infernal fire, or ignis gehemite ; he favs, that native fund refifts both art and nature for folution, and is never to be difTolved in any other man- ner, than by the ignis gehennce, or Alkahejl ; but this arti- ficial watery fire, he fays, converts fand into fait. If Hel- mont follows Paracelfus clofely, in applying this term ignis gchemus as a fynonymon of the Alkahejl, we may thence ar- rive at fome knowledge of what the Alkahejl is, fince this ignis gehenrue Paracelfus has explained himfelf pretty largely upon.

Helmont, in other places, fays, that the Alkahejl is the higheft exalted, and moft fuccefsful of all falts, having obtained the utmoft degree of purity and fubtilty poflible in nature ; and hence he calls it the ens primwn of falts, and the fal circulatum of Paracelfus. Could Helmont's fincerity be depended upon, we might from this alfo, compared with the works of Para- celfus, attempt to difcover this wonderful menftruum. The origin of the Alkahejl, we are told by Helmont, is from arts he exprefly fays, that nature has it not ; he fays, that a part of earth may, by art, be reduced to water, but that nature has no agent of power to do this ; but the Alkahejl alone can effea it.

Some have pretended themfelves pofleffed of this great men- ftruum, and declared, that it was prepared by a very fimple r.nd eafy procefs ; but this is a very different account from that of their maftcr Helmont^ who pofitively declares it the moll: tedious and difficult of all the chemical procefies ; nor are they to pretend there are two or more different kinds of Alkahejls, for Helmont pofitively affirms that there is but one.

The effects of this wonderful menftruum are, that all fenfible bodies are difTolved by it, not excepting even gold and mer- cury, upon which no other fubftance can intimately act ; ftones, flint, fand, gems, marcafites, clay, earth, brick, glafs, lime, fulpbur, &c. may all, according to Helmont, be tranf- muted by it into an actual fait* equal in quantity to their whole bulk ; and plants, flefh, fifth, bone, and all other ani- mal fubftances, are by it refolved into their pure principles ; but metals, on account of the equal commixture of their fe- minal matter, are very difficultly reduced to fait, and that no other menftruum but the Alkahejl can perform this. Char- coal is difTolved by it into a clear water, which rifes all in diftillation, leaving no fasces. The power of this menftruum, as of all others, is greatly increafed by fire, though only a very fmall degree of it is necefiary ; for, according to the author, a charcoal made of oak being put into a glafs, with an equal weight of the Alkahejl, and hermetically fealed, the whole was reduced to a clear and pellucid liquor, without faces, by a three days digeftion in balnea marine ; and an equal quantity of cedar wood in chips, and of the Alkahejl, being treated in the fame manner, a week's digeftion con- verted the whole into one homogene milky liquor, without any fediment ; and the Alkahejl only poured upon mercury, and once diftillcd from it, leaves it behind in form of a folid mafs, eafily reducible to a fixed powder, without either increafing or diminifhing its weight. It difTolves the Indus helmontii, or feptaria, in a few hours, into a fait of equal weight with itfelf, and never requires any great degree of fire for any fo- lution, itfelf riling in diftillation with the fecond degree of heat of a fand furnace, but not rifing in a balneum Ttidrtes, Boerhaave's Chem. p. 573.

Boerhaave obferves, that there has never been any thing in all nature obferved, or related, more furprizing than the phy- sical change which thefe authors attribute to the action of this menftruum ; as it at once changes the whole fubftance of the fubject into a different matter, without the leaft alteration of weight in the operation. The mafs, after this operation, teems always to appear either in a fluid, or in a feline form, though with fome difference ; for we find, that quickfilver is only reduced by it into a folid pulverifable mafs, which, on account of its great purity and fimplicity, cannot be converted into fait ; whence it radically refifts all the poflible feparations of art, or nature, and therefore is perfectly indiftructible. Thefe other bodies, therefore, when turned into an equal quantity of fait by the Alkahejl, frill retain their peculiar qua- lities and virtues, depending on their feveral powers lodged in their feminal principles.

By this means, therefore, all thefe bodies turn to a faline vo- latile fubftance, which contains all their virtues, and is ca- pable of commixion with all the animal fluids ; and in this ftate they are potable, in the true fenfe of the word ; for what the chemifts mean by potable gold, is gold thus reduced to a faline and foluble fubftance, equal to itfelf in quantity, and capable of circulation through all the vefTels of the body. All the folutions of gold are only mixtures of gold in acids, its particles remaining unaltered, though fufpended in the li- quor i but the true auruin potalnle of the chemifts is gold re- duced to a liquor equal to itfelf in weight, and properly the ens primum of gold. Boerhaave's, Chem. p. 575. The moft remarkable, however, of all the properties of the Alkahejl, is that of its being able to diflblve all thefe bodies, 4-

without ever mixing itfelf among them, but remaining itfelf perfectly feparate from all their particles, and fo neither in- creafing nor diminifhing their weight. This appears, by the example given by Helmont of the folution of the oak coal, which, when perfected, coniifted of two different liquors ; the liquor of the difTolved coal rifing alone in diftillation firft, . and leaving the foivent all behind, unaltered, either in quan- tity, or in any of its qualities. He exprefly affirms, that he never found any body to which the Alkahejl would unite, being itfelf a pure fubtile fubftance, reduced to its fmalleft poflible particles, and therefore uncapable of all fermentation, or admixture ; fo that it produces its effects by a bare external action upon the fubject, not by any admixture with it, and acts as the pureft fire upon bodies, or as hot water m dif- folving ice.

Hence the Alkahejl appears to have two very extraordinary properties, with refpect to all other menftruums. 1. That it does not act by attraction, or repulfion, but by a certain mechanical motion, contrary to that of all other menftruums, unlefs, perhaps, we are to except fire. And, 2. That it conftantly preferves all the native properties of the bodies it difTolves : yet Helmont fays, that in diflblving poifons, it re- duces them to wholefome medicines, by bringing them into their firft matter; but this is very difficult to underftand. When the Alkahejl has thus refolved all bodies into their vo- latile ens primum, fo as to let them retain their feveral virtues, we are told, that if they are farther puttied by this men- ftruum, they lofe their feveral qualities, and become mere indolent and infipid water ; fo that by applying the foivent too long, the former excellent productions are all deftroyed : and hence it follows, that water is the ultimate principle of all tangible bodies, the Alkahejl being unable to act any far- ther upon this water. This, however, is ready to receive the feminal matter of any other body, and thence to pafs itfelf into a new fubftance.

It feems extremely Arrange, that this menftruum, while it thus acts upon all bodies, itfelf (hould remain unaltered by all. In this refpect, it truly refembles fire, which is the only known agent to which it can be compared. It renders all bodies more volatile than itfelf, infomuch, that whatever is difTolved in it, is to be drawn over in diftillation, in a bath heat, whereas itfelf is not to be raifed, but in a cer- tain ftronger degree in fand.

With all thefe properties, however, the Alkahejl, as may be learnt from fome paflages of Helmont, has its equal. He fays, in his enigmatical language, that one and the fame li- quor, Alkahejl, fubdues all the tangible bodies of the uni- verfe into their firft life, without fuffering any change in itfelf or any lofs of its virtue, being only fubdued and changed by its equal. And, in another place, he adds, that mercury, freed from its original fulphur, cleaving to its moft internal part, is immutable in the fire, and immediately confumes the feminal powers of all other bodies, except its equal. This is the account Helmont has given, in different parts of his works, of his Alkahejl, collected together. No antient philofopher, chemift, or phyfician, has faid a word of any fuch fubftance, nor any of the moderns feen the effects of it s yet the thing is, in itfelf, fo defirable, that all the late che- mifts have attempted the difcovcring it ; and Boerhaave him- felf acknowledges, that he tried an incredible variety of ex- periments to this purpofe.

Paracelfus had a liquor procured, by a tedious procefs of cir- culation from fea fait, wherein nature has placed the utmoft perfection. This fait he, by incredible induftry, reduced to an oil, which always kept fluid and unchanged ; this oil he called the ens primum of falts, and the fal circulatum minus, or leffer circulated fait. The preparation is troubkfome, but pretty clearly defcribed, and this preparation perfectly correfponds with what Helmont fays, that the falts of bodies feveral times cohobated with the fal circulatum of Paracelfus, turn to water ; and hence he afcribes the virtues of the Alka* hejl to the ens primum of falts. He alfo mentions the pro- perty of changing poifons into medicines, and that of prepar- ing the ludus with this fait.

But Paracelfus had another menftruum, much more power- ful, and much more difficult to be obtained, than the circu- latum minus ; this he calls the circulatum majus ; he calls this the matter of mercurial fait, and the living fire. He ac- knowledges, that the higheft fire, and celeftial life, lie hid in common mercury ; and fays, the quinteflence of mercury is celeftial fire, if difTolved with its parent, or the fecret fait : when, therefore, thefe two are intimately combined by a ftrong union, and brought to a high degree of purity, fub- tility, and volatility, they feem to make that wonderful mer- curial water, which he defcribes in his chapter of the fpecific foivent, where he fays, that gold dies therein, fo as no longer to remain gold, whereas, in all other folutions, it is only inti- mately divided, but yet remains true gold in fmall particles, being eafily recoverable in its priftine form, upon reduction. By this means, therefore, there is a perfect union made of water with water ; for here are two kinds of water employed, the common water contained in the fait, and the metallic water contained in the mercury, though they are both fup- pofed to have the fame origin. AH this feems to have been

under-