Take of fine granulated or laminated gold (whither it be refined by Antimony or _Aqua fortis_) as much as you please: put it in a little Glass body, and pour four or five times as much of _Aqua regis_ upon it, set it stopt with a Paper in a gourd in warm sand; and the _Aqua regis_ within the space of one or two hours will dissolve the gold quite into a yellow water: but if it have not done so, it is a sign that either the water was not strong enough, or that there was too little of it for to dissolve it. Then pour the solution from the gold, which is not dissolved yet, into another glass, and pour more of fresh _Aqua Regia_ upon the gold: set it again to dissolve in warm sand or ashes, and the remaining gold will likewise be dissolved by it, and then there will remain no more, but a little white calx, which is nothing else but silver, which could not be dissolved by the _Aqua Regia_ (for the _Aqua Regia_, whether it be made after the common way with salt Armoniack, or else with common salt, doth not dissolve silver) so in like manner common _Aqua fortis_, or spirit of salt nitre dissolveth no gold; but all other metals are dissolved as well by strong _Aqua fortis_ as by _Aqua Regia_. And therefore you must be careful to take such gold as is not mixed with Copper, else your work would be spoiled: for if there were any Copper mixed with it, then that likewise would be dissolved and precipitated together with the gold; and it would be a hindrance to the kindling or fulminating thereof: but if you can get no gold, that is without Copper, then take Ducats or Rose-nobles, which ought to have no Addition of Copper, but only of a little Silver, which doth not hurt, because that it cannot be dissolved by the _Aqua Regia_, but remaineth in the bottom in a white powder. Make those Ducats or Rose-nobles red hot, and afterward bend them and make them up in Rolls, and throw them into the _Aqua Regia_ for to dissolve. All the gold being turned into a yellow water, and poured off, pour into it by drops a pure oyl made of the Salt of Tartar, _per deliquium_, and the gold will be precipitated by the contrary liquor of Salt of Tartar into a brown yellow powder, and the solution will be clear. But you must take heed, to pour no more oyl of Tartar into it than is needful for the precipitation of the gold; else part of the precipitated gold would be dissolved again, and so cause your loss. The gold being well precipitated, pour off the clear water from the gold calx by inclination, and pour upon it warm rain or other sweet water, stir it together with a clean stick of wood, and set it in a warm place, until the gold is settled, so that the water standeth clear upon it again; then pour it off, and pour on other fresh water, and let it extract the saltness out of the gold calx: and this pouring off, and then pouring on of fresh water again, must be reiterated so often, until no sharpness or saltness more be perceived in the water that hath