P. 7, l. 6 from the bottom. The word _liquibles_ in the text does not
mean liquids, for a liquid cannot be made hot enough to be _quenched_.
If the original _liquibles_ cannot be retained I should substitute the
word _liquiables_, meaning those things which can be liquefied by heat.
Indeed in the next passage we find stated that if Saturn (the
alchemists’ mystical name for Lead) be quenched, &c., and that if then
Mars (Iron) be quenched in the same liquid, it will acquire the softness
of Saturn. Or if you quench lead in spirit which has had iron first
cooled in it, it becomes hard.

Of course there is no truth whatever in the above statements.

P. 8. The fire without coals, &c., is ‘corrosive sublimate,’ most
probably containing an excess of Sulphuric acid (vitriol) as an
impurity. If Copper (Venus) or Tin (Jupiter) be dipt into this solution
of mercury they will have a deposit of mercury formed on their surface,
which will give them a pearly appearance.

P. 8. To bring Gold into calx. When gold is treated in the way directed,
a fine powder of gold of a brown or yellow colour is left. This might
readily have been mistaken for a calx by those who had no clear ideas of
what calx really was.

P. 9. The departing of gold from silver is essentially the same as the
plan practised at the present day.

To get the Quintessence of Gold. I can make nothing of the directions,
that is, I cannot see that they (the directions) hide any real truth.