BOOK FIVE.

...yields a regulus original: "regulum," the metallic mass that settles at the bottom of a crucible during melting, but ensuring they stay mixed together, calcine roast the substance to remove volatile components it just as the Antimony was calcined above. Melt it into glass, which will be a transparent red. Usually, a small metallic regulus remains after this vitrification; this can either be blown away with bellows to separate the Antimony from the gold, or by adding fresh Antimony and calcining it again in the same manner, it can be turned into glass.

Pour spirit of wine original: "spiritus vini," an early term for concentrated alcohol or ethanol over this crushed glass and let it sit for a while to extract the essence until the liquid turns yellow. This spirit is not an emetic a substance that induces vomiting; rather, it induces sweating without nausea or vomiting. It treats the Great Pox original: "Luem Veneream," syphilis, Dropsy, Gout, Epilepsy, and other ailments. A certain practitioner claimed to have extracted this glass using distilled vinegar; by distilling away the vinegar, he separated the remaining yellow powder. He then extracted this powder two or three times with spirit of wine and coagulated it once more into a yellow powder. With a dose of just one grain, he successfully cured the Great Pox a hundred times over. In this same way, glass is made from Silver original: "Luna," the alchemical name for silver and Antimony, etc.

Glass of Silver.

Libavius Andreas Libavius (1555–1616), a German physician and chemist famous for his textbook 'Alchemia' in Book 2 of Alchemy, Tract 1, Chapter 23, pages 68 and 69, says this regarding the Glass of Antimony: Stibium another name for Antimony or Antimony turns into various types of glass depending on the intended purpose. In the first or second melting with saltpeter potassium nitrate, used as a flux, it can vitrify immediately, provided you allow it to be fully liquefied and pour it into a basin. This glass appears black at first, but when ground into a powder, it turns red. Sometimes, if the Antimony was thoroughly washed beforehand, the entire mass turns red right away. It possesses diaphoretic original: "Diaphoreticam," sweat-inducing properties, and a red tincture can be extracted from it.

If you roast and calcine it more frequently so that the "haunting spirits" original: "spiritus inuascantes," the volatile impurities or sulfurous vapors depart, it becomes transparent and purgative. Its color may vary: sometimes lemon-yellow or golden, sometimes reddish, and sometimes a dark, greenish hue. I have even seen it nearly black or ash-colored yet transparent, which also purges the bowels. If this is processed further, it becomes so mild that it can only induce sweating.

The common purgative glass is made in many ways—for nearly every practitioner relies on his own experience and, because the material is so volatile, changes his methods to avoid appearing to agree with others, wishing to seem more knowledgeable—but this is the method most often favored by experts:

Select Antimony that has fine, long, thick, and shining veins, which appear yellowish where they are broken. Discard the frothy part and grind the rest into a fine powder. Macerate soak this in vinegar, changing the liquid several times, so that it is repeatedly moistened and dried in turn. (It can also be washed with brine several times and finally with fresh water to thoroughly cleanse it of noxious fumes.) The material thus prepared is placed into a four-sided, flat-bottomed kettle or an unglazed pot (a flat, square tray of clay can also be used for this), filling it only a third of the way. It is placed firmly upon supports so that a fire can be maintained beneath it. (The furnace...

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