VII. That some dissolvents are corrosive.

That mineral dissolvents are corrosive, and therefore dis-
solve bodies with ebullition, is clearly manifest by the re-

Raymond Lulhj. 279

ceipts aforesaid. I would not have you, being perhaps not suffi-
ciently instructed in the sayings of the adepts, every where declar-
ing against aqua fortisses, and all corrosives, either despise, or
think ill of them. These are those dissolvents by which the an-
cient adepts abbreviated their time and labour in preparing
their tinctures. And Paracelsus justly entitled himself to the
monarchy of arcanums, he having been the principal instrument
in completing not only the abbreviations of alchemy, but moreover
introducing these mineral dissolvents to medicinal use, and that
with so much dexterity, that there seems to be now no hope left
to his disciples of mending any imperfection of this art. Besides, •
these dissolvents differ from the vegetable dissolvents no otherwise,
than that an acidum is superadded to them, or to the spirit of phi-
losophical wine, corroding the aridum, and dividing it into atoms,
making way for the oleosum, to be sooner and better incorporated
and mixed together, which notwithstanding do by taking away
the acidum, return into the same vegetable dissolvents they
were before.