Curious Collection on Bismuth

mix such salts well together (but N.B., not until one intends to put them under the impregnated substance, and each time no more than one intends to use at once, for otherwise the best powers of these two salts would bite each other to death and consume one another before the time, which is one of the most principal tricks and has already made many a fool, so that their applied labor has taken a vain end) and sprinkle such a mixture under the substance. As for example, if there is one pound of the substance, take one ounce of the salts, etc. Rub and mix this well with a fine wooden pestle for several hours. Then place it in a cellar in a cool place (on the floor, where it is preserved from dry air) until the evening. Then place it for the night in a flask with a helmet alembic top and a small receiver in a gentle Balneum Mariae water bath. In the morning, however, take it out early and put it into a good, strong mortar with an equally flat bottom and high rim, and proceed in all thus 16 times. However, the salts must be proportioned according to the substance such that when there is one pound of the substance, a third part more of the salts is added, and thus one and a half pounds of salts are mixed underneath so that the substance and the mixed salt are equal, and together they are two pounds. (N.B., if something of moisture goes into the aforementioned receiver, one can keep such separately, for it is a remedy against the itch and rashes, and must not be mixed back under the substance.)