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ALCOHOL.
29
made
over
and
over
again.
Raimundus
Lullus,
born
at
Mallorca
in
the
year
1234,
suggested
that
the
phi-
losopher's
stone,
that
would
change
all
metals
into
real
gold,
might
be
won
from
the
three
natural
king-
doms.
To
have
it
from
plants,
one
had
to
begin
with
alcohol.
His
theory
of
the
preparation
of
the
substance
that
was
to
become
the
philosopher's
stone
follows:
"
Accipe
nigrum
nigrius
nigro
et
ex
eo
paries
octo-
decim
destilla
in
vase
argenteo,
aureo
vel
vitreo.
Et
in
prima
destillatione
solum
recipe
partem
prints
cum
dimidia,
et
hanc
partem
iterum
pone
ad
destillandum.
Et
hujus
iterum
quartam
partem
et
tertio
destilla
et
hujus
recipe
duas,
et
in
quarta
destillatione
pauco
mi-
nus
quam
totum.
Et
sic
destilla
illam
partem
usque
ad
octo
vel
novem
vices,
vel
decies"
This
distillate
is
afterward
once
more
rectified
over
a
very
slow
fire,
during
from
twenty
to
twenty-two
days:
"
quanta
destillatio
ejus
fuerit
leviori
igne,
tanto
subtilior
erit
in
spiritu
et
fortitudine
"
It
is
hardly
worth
while
to
state
that
Lullus
did
not
find
"
the
philosopher's
stone."
We
know
"Work
is
the
true
philosopher's
stone
that
changes
all
metals
into
gold."
The
notes
of
Lullus
are,
in
many
points,
indistinct;
much
clearer
are
the
remarks
of
Basilius
Valentinus
fourteenth
century.
He
recommends
the use
of
car-
bonate
of
potassium;
yet
this
was
accepted
much
later.
Pure
alcohol
was
first
manufactured
according
to
this