Page:Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus Vol I (IA cu31924092287121).djvu/187

 fourth tin, the fifth copper, and the last iron. So among transmuted metals the first is part with part, then lead ashes, next laton, afterwards casting brass, then red metal, and lastly white. Mercury, for its part, does not take more than one metal with which it is amalgamated. Afterwards, that amalgam must always be vigorously pressed out by means of goat's skin or a cotton rag, of which a strip is to be inserted, by which means nothing but Mercurius vivus alone will pass over. The metal which was attracted will remain on the skin or the rag like lime, and you can afterwards reduce it to a metallic body, by liquefying it with salt of alkali, or some other substance. By this device Mercurius vivus is separated from all the metals more quickly and conveniently than by the method of distillation. By this process with Mercurius vivus, in the hands of a skilled and active alchemist, all metals can be extracted and separated one from another in turn, after their calcination and pulverisation. In the same manner, with very small outlay of labour, tin, too, and lead can be separated from copper, or from copper vessels, from iron and steel covered with tin, and this without any fire or water, solely by the amalgam of Mercurius vivus, as we have said. Again, gold and silver leaf, as also every metal after being ground or pounded, and written with pen or pencil on cloth, parchment, paper, leather, wood, stone, or other material, can be resolved with Mercurivs vivus, but so that afterwards the Mercurius vivus can again be separated and segregated from these metals.

The separation of metals in aqua fortis, aqua regis, and similar strong corrosives, is effected in the following manner: Let the metal which is mixed and joined to another be taken and reduced into very thin plates, or most minute portions. Let it be put into a separating vessel, and a sufficient quantity of common aquafortis be poured upon it. Let these stand, and both be macerated until all the metal is resolved into a transparent water. If it be silver, and contains gold in it, all the silver will be resolved into water, while the gold will be calcined and sink down to the bottom in the form of black sand. By this method the two metals, gold and silver, will be separated. But if you wish to separate the silver alone without distillation, and to drive that to the bottom like black sand, and to bring it back to calcination from its state of resolution, then put into that resolution a small copper plate, and thereupon the silver will sink in the water, and occupy the bottom of the glass vessel like snow, while it will begin gradually to consume the copper plate.

The separation of silver and copper by means of common aquafortis is accomplished in the following way: Reduce the copper which contains silver, or the silver which contains copper within itself, into very thin plates, or into grains; put it into a glass vessel, and add as much common aquafortis as necessary. In this way the silver will be calcined, and will go to the bottom in the form of white lime, while the copper will be resolved and converted into transparent water. If this water, together with the resolved copper, be abstracted through a glass funnel from the silver calx into a separate glass vessel, then the resolved copper can be reverberated with common rain or