Dissertation on the Sulphur of the Metals

by Pott.

« It is a limpid, volatile, pure, oleaginous liqueur, inflammable as the spirit of wine, acid as good vinegar, which passes in the distillation in the form of cloudy flakes. This liqueur, digested and cohobed on the metals, especially after they have been calcinated, dissolves almost all of them, it takes from the gold a very red tincture and as soon as it rises from the gold, there remains a resinous matter entirely soluble in the spirit of wine, that acquires by this way a beautiful red colour; this residue is totally irreducible and I am sure that of it, one could prepare the salt of gold. This salt is mixed indifferently with the aqueous or oleaginous liqueurs, it transforms the chorales into a liqueur of green sea, that seems to be its first state; it is a liqueur saturated with ammonia salt and oleaginous at the same time and to really say what I think of it, it is the true mense of Weidenfeld or the Philosophical spirit of wine because we extract of the same matter Raymond Lull's white and red wines. This is why Henry Kunrath in its Amphitheatre gives to the lunary the name of its fire-water, and his water-fire, because he is convinced that Juncken is deceived entirely, when he tries to persuade that it is in the spirit of wine that it is necessary to seek the anonymous solvent about which we spoke. »

« This solvent supplies a urinous spirit of a singular nature that seems in some points to differ entirely of the ordinary urinary spirits. It still supplies a type of butter that has the consistency and the whiteness of the antimony butter; it is extremely bitter and mildly volatile; these two products are very appropriate one and another to extract the metals. The preparation of this solvent although obscure and hidden, is very easy of doing; you will excuse me from saying more of this matter, because since there is very little time that I know of it and worked on it, I still have a lot of experiences to do to make sure of all its properties. Though without speaking of the book Of Secretis Adeptorum of Weidenfeld, Dickinson seems to have discovered this menses in its treatise of Chrisopeia. »