Die Alchemie. Das ist die Lehre von den grossen Geheim-Mitteln der Alchemisten und den Speculationen, welche man an sie knüpfte

Oh no. It is precisely the main purpose of this book to show you that I do not stand isolated, that the greatest men are on my side, that they knew the Arcana secret remedies which I have found again. You will see how they considered these Arcana worthy to serve as the foundation for the development of their often astonishing mental activity. Do not believe that those great men would have based their brilliant works on the Arcana, or linked them to the Arcana, if these were not something absolutely magnificent, if they were not Remedia divina divine remedies!

Do the Arcana help only with the prominent epidemic diseases?

No. I have named the prominent epidemic diseases only to lead you to a terrain where no self-deception in your sense is possible during observation. One heals by means of them pneumonia, pleurisy, croup, phlebitis inflammation of the veins, provided there is no suppuration, meningitis, mastitis, angina provided there is no suppuration, acute rheumatism, jaundice, gum boils, pseudo-erysipelas, acute Bright's disease kidney disease, ophthalmia eye inflammation, and so on, and so forth.

How does it stand with chronic diseases?

A line runs through every chronic disease. If we stand on this side of the line, then healing is possible, it occurs by the hand of the Arcana; if we stand on the other side of it, then radical healing is over. Moreover, one heals: skin diseases, syphilis, dropsy, and so on.

What are those magnificent remedies called then?

They are called: Acidum sulphuricum sulfuric acid, Ferrum iron, Natron carbonicum sodium carbonate, Natron nitricum sodium nitrate, Liquor hepatis liver liquor, likely a sulfurated solution, Pulvis solaris ruber red solar powder, Pulvis solaris niger black solar powder. (Compare the section: The Arcana and their Preparation.)

What, among them are remedies that are very well known and appear in every Materia medica!

Yes, certainly. But it is with many Arcana as it is with ether. Ether stood in all Materia medica pharmacopeias, was found in every pharmacy, and was known to everyone. But no one suspected, until the American Jackson taught it, that by means of ether one could make a person undergoing surgery insensitive to pain. It is exactly the same with the Arcana. Among them are such remedies which stand in all Materia medica, are found in every pharmacy, and are known to everyone, but no one has suspected until now that they are Arcana, and as such have an immense significance at the bedside.

In general, I came upon the matter in such a way that I once—what does not happen to one at the bedside?—found myself in the position of prescribing Natron nitricum sodium nitrate to a patient. As I was on my way home, it was already "against my heart" original: "contre coeur" that I had prescribed it. Meanwhile, "what was done, was done" original: "ce qui était fait, était fait". The next day I visited my patient at the very crack of dawn, for the matter had been going around in my head all night. What did I see? A success that set me in astonishment, which told me: here chance has given you a great remedy. Immediately, however, I also said to myself further, it is impossible that kind nature should have produced only one such great remedy. Just as the case stands with the nitrate in this disease, so it will stand in other diseases with regard to other remedies, and if you knew these remedies, you would have a treasure at the bedside of which the teachers who taught you medicine never had an inkling, a treasure that would offer you more than all school-learning. So I searched further and successively discovered the remaining Arcana. First, after the Natron nitricum, I discovered the Ferrum iron, then the Pulv. solaris niger and Pulv. solaris ruber, then the Liquor hepatis. Finally, I discovered the Acidum sulphuricum and the Natron carbonicum, whereby the reader has proof of what we pointed out above, that it matters little with the Arcana that they also involve remedies which stand in every Materia medica, are in every pharmacy, and are known to everyone. In the case of the Acidum sulphuricum and the Natron, these were remedies that I already knew in the fifth semester of my university years, and yet, searching for the Arcana, I passed them by for years without suspecting that they were Arcana. It cost me much effort and many exertions to discover those great remedies. Why describe these efforts and exertions? A stranger has only half an ear for such things anyway. Short and good, I reached the goal, indeed a brilliant goal!

That I was now, by following the path in question, doing nothing more and nothing less than researching the Arcana of the alchemists, only half entered my mind. I suspected it from the start, but it was just a vague suspicion. To be honest, I did not quite want to look the matter in the face. I understood that to gain light here, to gain absolute conviction, an in-depth study of the alchemists would be necessary. Now imagine my humble self, by day and night, in heat and cold, in dust, rain, hail, and snow, attending to an extensive medical, surgical, and obstetric practice on foot and on horseback, and in addition to that I was now to devote myself to an in-depth study of the writings of the alchemists and what is connected with them! Truly,

I lacked the desire for it. This was to awaken in me only gradually. And it did awaken gradually, took on ever greater dimensions, and so I gave myself over to that study.

What labor!—comparable only to that of finding the Arcana at the bedside. First, rummaging through ten and a hundred things to see if they had a relation to alchemy, and once the right thing was seized, then calculating out its meaning! The preliminary work of others in this field is, so to speak, equal to zero. I am the first to openly lay out the secrets of the alchemists; before me, no one has ever done it, for no one knew them before me except the alchemists themselves, but they wrote very obscurely and did everything possible to lead people on the wrong track regarding their knowledge. Indeed, inviting circumstances given such a state of affairs in relation to the sources! What I lay before you, honored reader, in the present book, you read through so smoothly that you cannot measure how often my hand sank down in weariness. Well, I have reached the goal here too, I have solved my task, and the present book gives proof of it. You will find things in it of which you would not suspect from the outset that they stand in connection with alchemy or receive their clarification through alchemy.

This book will probably have its main interest for the physician. From it he learns the Arcana, and receives proof of their existence from the most varied points of view, by the hand of the most varied authorities.

But the book should be captivating not only for the physician, but also for the educated thinker in general. Even if the Arcana and what is immediately linked to them perhaps interest him less, he should not pass with indifference by that which has a relation to: the Bible and the history of dogma (the story of Creation, the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the λόγος Logos, the Word or Divine Reason, the symbols, etc.); to the first book of the Oracula Sibyllina Sibylline Oracles; to the Platonic writings, especially the Timaeus and the Critias, whose contents modern times have more or less just dreamed away; to Greek philosophy; to the Neoplatonic writings; to Indian archaeology; to Greek mythology; to the history of chemistry; to magic, astrology, the art of gold-making, the art of gemstone-making, to the Kabbalah (the Book of Yetzirah Formation); to the Pythagorean theorem, to the squaring of the circle; to the philosopher's stone, to perpetual motion, and so on. In short, he should not pass with indifference by the wonderful variety which alchemy offers besides the Arcana as such, for which alchemy and only alchemy offers clarification.

And so I dedicate this book not only to physicians, but to all educated thinkers.