CONCERNING THE NATURE OF THINGS.
BOOK VII.
Concerning the Transmutation of Natural Things.
IF we are to write concerning the transmutation of all natural objects, it is just and necessary that, in the first place and before all else, we should point out what transmutation is; in the second place, what are the successive steps thereto; and, thirdly, by what means, and in what manner, it is brought about. Transmutation, then, takes place when an object loses its own form, and is so changed that it bears no resemblance to its anterior shape, but assumes another guise, another essence, another colour, another virtue, another nature or set of properties: as if a metal becomes glass or stone; if stone or wood becomes coal; if clay becomes stone and slate; hide, glue; rag, paper; and many such things. All these are transmutations of natural objects. After this it is most necessary to know the steps to transmutation, how many there are. There are not more than seven. For although some persons reckon a greater number, there are, of a truth, only seven principal steps; the rest which may be included among the steps are comprised in these seven. They are the following:
Calcination, Sublimation, Solution, Putrefaction, Distillation, Coagulation, Tincture.
If anyone ascends that ladder, he will arrive at so wonderful a place that he will see and experience many secrets in the transmutation of natural objects.
The first step, then, is Calcination,[1] under which are comprised Reverberation and Cementation. Among these three there is little difference so far as relates to Calcination. Here, therefore, Calcination is the principal step, for by Reverberation and Cementation many corporeal objects are calcined and reduced to ashes, especially metals. What is calcined is not on that account reverberated or cemented. By Calcination all metals, minerals, stones, glasses, and all corporeal objects, become carbon and ashes; and this is done in a naked fire, strong, and exposed to the air. By means of this all
- ↑ One of the Fragmenta Medica contained in the first volume of the Geneva folio, when explaining the process of calcination from the standpoint of Hermetic Medicine, observes that it is eminently necessary for the physician who concerns himself with Alchemy to understand calcination and the virtue which resides therein.
