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such solution was recommended by alchemists as a necessary 
constituent of the elixir vitae, and essential for the work of trans- 
mutation. In Fig. 11 the solution of gold in the flask is repre- 
sented by the sun emitting rays. The simple disc of the sun is 
the more common symbol for gold. 
Arnoldus also distilled various oils and essences. He con- 
tended that sulphur, arsenic, mercury, and sal ammoniac—all 
volatile bodies be it noted—are the souls of metals, and are 
given off during calcination. He also affirmed that silver is 
intermediate between mercury and other metals, just as the soul 
is intermediate between the spirit and the body. Arnoldus is 
said to have had for his pupil Pope John XXII., an accom- 
plished alchemist, who left at his death eighteen millions of 
florins, which the alchemists fondly cite as a proof of the possi- 
bility of transmutation. Our own George Ripley, Canon of 
Bridlington in Yorkshire (b. about 1460) wrote a poem on 
alchemy, and passed for a successful disciple of the art, but we 
cannot point to a new fact which he elucidated. He divided all 
chemical operations into twelve processes—Calcination, dissolu- 
tion, separation, conjunction, putrefaction, congelation, cibation, 
sublimation, fermentation, exaltation, multiplication, and pro- 
jection. Several MS. copies of his poem exist in the British 
Museum, bound up with copies of the works of Roger Bacon 
and earlier writers. Here is a specimen of his rugged 
rhymes :— 
The fyrst chapter shall be of naturall Cadetnation ; 
The second of Dysso/ution, secret aud phylosophycall ; 
The third of our elementall SeSaration; 
The fourth of Cozjunction matrimoniall ; 
‘The fyfth of Putrefaction then followe shall : 
Of Congelation Albyficative shall be the sixt, 
Then of Cyéation, the seaventh shall follow next. 
One of the most celebrated of the alchemists was Basil Valen- 
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Fic, 13.—Alchemical representation of processes. 
tine, who was born at Erfurt in 1394. According to Olaus 
Borrichius his works were accidentally discovered in the wall of 
a church at Erfurt many years after his death. A thunderbolt 
struck the church and exposed to view the long-lost alchemistical 
treasures. Basil Valentine was the author of many treatises, 
the most important being his ‘‘ Currus Triumphalis Antimonii,” 
in which he discusses the properties of antimony and of many of 
its compounds. He regarded the metals as compounds of salt, 
sulphur, and mercury; and he was acquainted with many 
metallic compounds, among others nitrate of mercury, sulphide 
of arsenic, red oxide of mercury, chloride of iron, sulphate of 
iron, fulminating gold, carbonate of lead, acetate of lead, and 
the oxides of lead. He was aware that iron precipitates copper 
from solution, and that solution of potash precipitates iron from 
solution. He was well acquainted with the preparation of nitric 
and sulphuric acids, and used them for various purposes of disso- 
lution. In order to obtain nitric acid he distilled powdered | 
earthenware with nitre, or equal parts of nitre and green 
vitriol, or nitre with finely powdered flints. He obtained fuming 
sulphuric acid by distilling green vitriol, after the manner ‘still 
practiced at Nordhousen and elsewhere. Basil Valentine wrote 
very obscurely and was fond of symbolical designs. Woodcuts 
12 and 13 are taken from his works, and represent various pro- 
cesses imperfectly described. Thus the lion in Fig. 12 would repre- 
sent a solution of a metal, the serpent another solution, or perhaps 
the serpent a metal, and the lion devouring it a solvent ; the sun 
and moon are watching the operation, and the symbol of mercury 
appears between two roses, Fig. 13 represents some operation 
which is thus thus described by the principal figure :—I am an 
old, infirm, debilitated man, my soul and spirit (represented by 
the two boy-headed birds above his head) leave me, and I assimu- 
late the black crow. In my body are found salt, sulphur, and 
mercury. This may possibly refer to the solution of gold in 
aqua regia : it loses its metallic nature, its solidity and lustre, 
and assimulates the acid ; but one may conjecture in vain con- 
cerning the enigmatical devices in which some of the alchemists 
took so much delight, and which they often employed, like 
Roger Bacon’s anagram, to conceal the full significance of their 
operations or discoveries. 
The following extract, in which he treats of the generation of - 
metals, will show the style of Basil Valentine’s writing :— 
“Therefore think most diligently about this ; often bear in mind, 
observe, and comprehend that all minerals and metals together 
in the same time, and after the same fashion, and of one and the 
same principal matter are produced and generated. That matter 
is no other than a mere vapour, which is extracted from the ele- 
mentary earth by the superior stars or by a sidereal distillation 
of the macrocosm, which sidereal hot infusion, with an airy sul- 
phureous property, descending upon inferiors, so acts and 
operates, as in those metals and minerals is implanted spiritually 
and invisibly a certain power and virtue, which fume afterwards 
resolves in the earth into a certain water, from which mineral 
water all metals are thenceforth generated and ripened to their 
perfection, and thence proceeds this or that metal or mineral 
according as one of the three principles acquires dominion, and 
they have much or little of sulphur and salt, or an unequal 
mixture of them ; whence some metals are fixed, that is constant 
or stable ; some volatile and easily mutable, as is seen in gold, 
silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin.” 
Now this is by no mew the most obscure piece of alchemical 
writings with which we shall come in contact. 
G. F, RopWELL 
GLACIER MOTION 
1N making some experiments on the freezing of water 
some time ago it was noticed that after the same water 
had been melted and frozen a number of times it gene- 
tally burst the tube in which it was frozen. On looking 
for an explanation of this phenomenon, it became at once 
evident that the experiment contained the germ of the ex- 
planation of glacier motion. Every time the water was 
frozen in the tube there was a mimic representation of 
glacier motion, The ice possessed, the first two or three 
times it was frozen, a certain amount of viscosity which 
enabled it to adapt itself to the shape of the tube, as was 
evident from the distortion of the upper surface of the ice 
in the tube. How came the ice to lose this plasticity or 
viscosity, this power of adapting itself to the shape of the 
tube, the loss of which caused it to burst the tube after it 
had been frozen and melted a number of times ? Wherein 
did the ice which had only been frozen once differ from 
the other? The answer to this seemed to be, that the ice 
which had only been frozen once had more air in it than 
that which had been frozen and melted a number of times, 
as each succeeding freezing deprived the ice of a quantity 
of air or some other gases. The natural conclusion, 
therefore, seemed to be, that ice with air in it is a viscous 
substance, though pure ice is not. The first question then 
to be asked is, Is ice with air in it a viscous substance ? 
In order to get an answer to this question, glass tubes 
‘4-inch in diameter and twelve inches long were filled 
with water in which was dissolved a great quantity of 
air. The tubes were then placed in a freezing mixture. 
After the water was frozen in the tubes the tubes were 
