Philadelphia, or brotherly love to the studious in the hermetick art

The practice of that highly useful and much-desired solvent original: "Liquor"; likely referring to the "Alkahest," the legendary universal solvent of Paracelsian alchemy would be no less profitable to one who has mastered the principles meaning the theoretical foundations of alchemy and nature. This solvent is sought by medical and diligent students; it is what brought fame to Paracelsus Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541), a Swiss physician and alchemist who pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine and gave honor to van Helmont Jan Baptista van Helmont (1580–1644), a chemist and physician from the Spanish Netherlands who was a major influence on early modern chemistry in the cure of diseases. An experienced master has asserted—and no doubt truthfully—that the practical preparation of this solvent is a hundred times more difficult than creating the elixir elixir: the Philosophers' Stone in liquid form, capable of transmuting metals and curing all illnesses itself.