254 CIIYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



aquam ardentem in balneo ; illam rectificabis quousque 

 sine phlegmate sit." He states that seven rectifications are 

 employed, but that three are sufficient to render the alco- 

 hol inflammable, and to prevent its leaving any aqueous 

 residuum. 



The same author shows elsewhere the mode of separating 

 the water by means of a dry fixed alkali. (See Bergman's 

 Opuscula physica et chymicay Leipsic edition of 1781, Vol. 

 IV. page 137.) Towards the end of the fourteenth century, 

 Basil Valentine proposed the use of quicklime for the same 

 purpose. 



In all his works Raymond Lully speaks of a preparation 

 of distilled spirit which he calls quinta essentia, whence is 

 derived the word quintessence : he obtained it by repeated 

 cohobations made at a gentle heat during several days, and 

 by redistilling the product. Raymond Lully and his suces- 

 8ors attached great virtue to this quintessence, which they 

 made the base of all their alchymical labors. 



Arnold of Villanova, a contemporary of Lully, speaks 

 much of distilled spirit, but not in such a manner as to jus- 

 tify the conclusion of his being the inventor of the process 

 by which it was obtained ; he cannot however be denied the 

 honor of having made the happiest application of the proper- 

 ties of distilled spirit, and particularly of simple and com- 

 pounded wine, both in medicine and pharmaceutical prepa- 

 rations. {Arnaldi Villanovani Praxis : Tractatus de Vino ; 

 cap. De Potihus, etc.; edit. Lugduni, 1586.) 



Michael Savonarola, who lived at the commencement of 

 the fifteenth century, has left us a treatise [De conjiciendd 

 Aqua VitcB,) which contains some very remarkable things 

 respecting distillation. He first remarks, that those who 

 preceded him did not generally know the following process 

 for distillation. This process consists in putting the wine 

 into a metal boiler, and receiving the vapor in a pipe placed 

 in a bath of cold water ; the condensed vapor flowed from 

 the pipe into a receiver. 



Savonarola observes, that distillers placed their establish- 

 ments near a stream of water, that they might always have 

 firesh water at their disposal. The ancients called the spiral 

 worm of the still vitis, on account of its windings. (See 

 Jerome Rubeus.) For closing the joinings of the apparatus, 

 they employed a lute made of lime and white of eggs ; or 

 one of flour paste and paper. 



Savonarola adds, that in his day the use of glass cucur- 



