Wherefore you must remember to take the _Antimony_ out presently after the Solution, precipitate and adulterate it according to the custom of _Alchymists_, that it may not be corroded with its perfect Oil by the Water, and burnt up to nothing.
_The Water wherein we dissolve is thus made._
R. _Vitriol_, a pound and a half, _Salt-Armoniac_ one pound, _Azinat_ one pound, _Salt-nitre_ a pound and a half, _Salt-gemme_ one pound, _Allom_ half a pound; these are the Ingredients which belong unto the making of the Water for the Solution of _Antimony_.
Take and mix them well together; at first distil very slowly, for the Spirits ascend with greater violence than those of any other common _Aqua fortis_; beware of its Spirits; for their Fumes are very subtile and hurtful in their penetration.
When you have adulterated the _Antimony_ well and purely from the corrosive Water, then put it into a clean Vial, poure good distilled Vinegar upon it, set it forty dayes and nights to putrefie in Horse-dung, or in _Balneum Mariæ_, it will be bloud-red. Take it out, and see how much is yet to be dissolved, decant off gently the pure and clear, which is red into a Glass-Gourd, poure other Vinegar upon the _Fæces_ as before, that if any thing should yet remain therein, it might be dissolved; this must be done four times in fourty days and nights; for if any good be in the _Fæces_, it will be dissolved in that time, then cast the Dregs away as unprofitable, being but Dirt, and to be cast to the Dunghill.
Put all the Solutions in a glass-Gourd into _Balneum Mariæ_, distil all the tart Vinegar from it, pour it on again, or else pour fresh, if this be too weak, it will quickly dissolve in the Vinegar; distil it again from it, that the Matter be quite dry; then take common distilled water, wash all tartness from it with the Vinegar imparted to the Matter, then dry the Matter in the Sun, which is of a very deep red, or else dry it very well at a gentle fire.
When the Philosophers find our _Antimony_ thus secretly prepared, they say then that its external nature and virtue is inverted internally, and the internal cast forth externally, henceforth becoming an Oil, which is concealed in its innermost and profoundest part, till it be well prepared, and cannot any more be brought into its first Essence, untill the last Judgment; and it is true, for so soon as it feels the force of the fire, it flies away in a Vapour with all its parts, because it is volatile.