[346] “Tere ipsum fortiter cum aqua salis communis.... Ablue in aceto acerrimo.” The section “Nitri Separatio” of “Aristoteles, de Perfecto Magisterio,” in the _Theatrum Chemicum_, ed. by Zetzner; a collection of alchemical tracts of the Middle Ages, iii. 68. [347] Almost literally translated by Whiteborne: “clarified and from earthe and grosse matter diligently purged.” See A, p. 21. [348] _i.e._ the lapis Assius = saltpetre. We have here unmistakably a _verbum œnigmaticum_. The efflorescence of the stone of Assos, which was unknown to the crowd, was of course “not a stone,” although called so. The philosopher’s stone, which was well known by name to the crowd, was likewise “not a stone,” although called so:— “... ’tis a stone And not a stone; a spirit, a soul, and a body.” —Jonson’s “Alchemist.” Bacon avails himself of the ambiguity of the phrase, “stone which is not a stone,” to support the delusion created by the title of the chapter, and confirm the unwary in the belief that the philosopher’s stone is under discussion, instead of saltpetre. [349] He passes suddenly from chalk to cheese—yellow cheese, laughing openly in his reader’s face. [350] _i.e._ the cleansed natural saltpetre. [351] “Put the jar on a gentle fire.”—Hassan, A, p. 24. [352] “The mother liquid is boiled until the scum ceases to rise.”—Waltham Abbey process, C, p. 19. [353] “Clear and fair and of an azure colour.”—Whitehorne, F, p. 21. [354] _i.e._ the scum and impurities. [355] _i.e._ “to drie throughly.”—Whitehorne, I, p. 22. [356] This repetition corresponds with Whitehorne’s second process; beginning at F´, p. 22. [357] _i.e._ the crystals just obtained. [358] A powder to purge, or to purify and clarify. “Prenez de la chaulx vive et de l’eau de pluye ... et les brouïllez bien ensemble, et puis le laissez reposer ... et se fera forte lexive.... Prenez de la lexive dessus dicte, et mettez vostre salpetre dedans,” &c. “Livre de Canonnerie,” &c., which although not published until 1561, appears to belong to the end of the fifteenth century.—In Reinaud and Favé, pp. 146-7. [359] Bacon does not name the two substances he alludes to, but Whitehome names two and prescribes the same proportions: “Two parts of unslacked lime and three of oke asshes.”—See A, p. 21. Did Whitehorne have access to Bacon’s MSS.? [360] Treating ostensibly on gold, Bacon is obliged to use _resolve_ for _dissolve_. [361] The alchemical preparation of gold had much in common with the refining of saltpetre. In the “Nitri Preparatio” of Bernard’s and Penoti’s _Theatrum Chemicum_, iii. 78, we read: “Fac postmodum de eo per omnia ut dicam in preparatione auri, id est, destilla per alambicum et congela,” &c. [362] _i.e._ to the laxative.