BOOK FIVE.

...let it boil for one or two hours (cooking it three times), and the dregs will be precipitated to the bottom. The water, moreover, will be colored like saffron. While it is still hot, it should be decanted from the dregs and passed through a capillary wick original: "lingulam bibulam," a strip of absorbent material used to siphon and filter liquids or filter paper, then left overnight until the redness properly develops. Once the waters—which are still impregnated with saltpeter potassium nitrate—have been removed by evaporation in a pan, and after the substance has been edulcorated washed until neutral just once with fresh water and subsequently dried, it yields the true Saffron, which they also call the Saffron of Metals original: "crocum metallorum," a chemical preparation of antimony, according to Martin Ruland’s 5th Century, Cure 95. It is called "Saffron" because it reflects almost the same color as the saffron flower when its blossoms are turning reddish; they call it the "Saffron of Metals" because it is an accepted opinion among the Hermeticists followers of the esoteric and chemical traditions of Hermes Trismegistus that the Magnesia of Saturn original: "magnesia Saturni," a name for antimony ore—which they say is Antimony—is the essence and root of all metals.

Six or twelve grains of this are macerated, or if the need is urgent, boiled in water, wine, beer, mead original: "hydromelite," fermented honey and water, or any other liquor suitable for the specific disease. Of this strained liquid, one-half ounce to two ounces is drunk, either cold or hot. Ruland calls this Blessed Water original: "aqua Benedicta". As he himself states in the cited cure, this is offered for the great health of the sick in all diseases—even those commonly deemed incurable—either on its own or mixed with other liquids. This is frequently demonstrated in Ruland's many case studies from his Centuries of Cures. It possesses wondrous virtues in the whole art of healing:

1. It is given for headaches, often those caused by impurities in the stomach that pierce the head, in waters of Betony, Bugloss, Borage, etc.
2. In chronic cough, asthma, pneumonia original: "peripneumonia", and sore throat original: "angina", in water of Coltsfoot, Violets, Hyssop, and similar.
3. In all ailments of the stomach, with water of Blessed Thistle, Wormwood, and Mint.
4. In Epilepsy the "falling sickness", in water of Peony flowers, Linden flowers, Lavender, etc.
5. In Pleurisy inflammation of the chest lining, whether false or true, in water of Milk Thistle or Corn Poppy original: "rheadis," the wild red poppy.
6. In hypochondriac melancholy a digestive and emotional disorder thought to arise from the organs below the ribs, with water of Maidenhair Fern, or a decoction of Spleenwort or Dodder.
7. In all fevers, especially daily fevers, in water of Lesser Centaury, Blessed Thistle, etc.
8. In the Plague, where vomiting should be induced from the start, in water of Blessed Thistle, Meadowsweet, Ash, etc.
9. For the prevention of Arthritis and all its varieties, in water of Wild Thyme or barley water. See the Pharmacopoeia of Quercetanus Joseph Duchesne, a famous Paracelsian physician.