of all corporeal things. Now we will go on to its species, and here will describe to you in detail, but as briefly as possible, the life of each natural thing.
The life, then, of all men is none other than a certain astral balsam,[1] a balsamic impression, a celestial and invisible fire, an included air, and a spirit of salt which tinges. I am unable to name it more clearly, although it could be put forward under many distinctive titles. Since, however, the chief and the best are here pointed out, we will be silent as to the rest and the inferior names.
The life of metals is a latent fatness which they have received from sulphur. This is shewn from their fluxion, because everything which passes into flux in the fire does so on account of its hidden fatness. Unless this were so no metal could be reduced to a fluid state, as we see in the case of iron and steel, which have the least Sulphur and fatness of all the metals, wherefore they are of a drier nature than all the rest of them.
The life of mercury is nothing but inner heat and outer frigidity. That is to say, within it gives heat, but without it causes cold; and in this respect it is aptly to be compared to a garment of skins, which, like mercury, causes both heat and cold. For if a garment of this kind be worn by a man, it warms him and protects him from the cold; but if he wears the hairless part against his naked body, it causes cold, and defends him from excessive heat. So it came about that in very ancient times, and it is even the custom still, that these coats of skin are worn both in summer and in winter, as much against the heat as against the cold; in summer the hairless part is turned within, and the hairy part outside, but in the cold winter season the hairy part is turned within and the hairless part outside. As it is with the garment of skins, so is it with mercury.
The life of sulphur is a combustible, ill-smelling fatness. Whilst it flames and sends forth its evil odour it may be said to live.
The life of all salts is nothing else but a spirit of aqua fortis: for when the water is abstracted from them, that which remains at the bottom is called dead earth.
The life of gems and corals is mere colour, which can be taken from them by spirits of wine. The life of pearls is their brightness, which they lose in their calcination. The life of the magnet is the spirit of iron, which can be extracted and taken away by rectified vinun ardens itself, or by spirit of wine.
The life of flints is a mucilaginous matter. The life of marcasites, cachymiæ, talc, cobalt, zinc, granites, zwitter, vismat (rude tin), is a metallic spirit of antimony, which has the power to tinge. Of arsenicals, auripigment, orpiment, realgar, and similar matters, the life is a mineral coagulated poison.
- ↑ The flesh and blood of man are preserved and sustained by a certain balsam. Now, this balsam is the body of salt. So, therefore, by salt is man preserved as by a balsam.—De Morbis Tartareis, c. 21. The balsam of man exists alike in all his members, and is specialised therein—in the blood, in the marrow, in the bones, the arteries etc.—Chirurgia Magna, Lib. V.
