Page 23 - Compound of Compounds
P. 23

caution to avoid dirtying the mercury; open the apparatus. If you discover a white
matter, sublimated, pure, dense and weighty, you have succeeded. But in case your
sublimate was spongy, light and porous, gather it and begin anew the sublimation over
the residue, by adding once again common pulverized salt; operate in the same vase
over its furnace in the same manner with the same degree of fire as indicated above.
Then open the vase to see if the sublimate is white, dense, solid; gather it and place it
carefully aside for future usage when needed to complete the Opus. But if its
appearance leaves something to be desired, you must sublimate it for a third time until
you obtain it pure, dense, white and weighty.

     Observe that by this operation you have removed two impurities from the
Mercury. First you extirpated all of its superfluous moisture; in the second place you
extirpated all of its impure earthy parts, which remained in the faeces; thus you
sublimated the mercury into a clear, semi-fixed substance. Put it aside as
recommended.

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