A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.222

v2.c34.222

तु ताम्रोपधातु किञ्चित् ताम्रेण तद्भवति); of zinc (वङ्गाभ, जसद) from calamine (रसक—Rasárnava); of copper from pyrites (माक्षिक, विमल, etc.—Rasárnava, (though the golden pyrites were supposed to be a semi-metal of gold, containing some gold along with the essence of copper)—the purification of mercury by repeated distillation from lead and tin with which it is used to be adulterated in the market. The various metallurgic processes described are—extraction, purification, killing (formation of oxides, chlorides and oxy-chlorides for the most part), calcination, incineration, powdering, solution, distillation, precipitation, rinsing (or washing), drying, steaming, melting, casting, filing, etc. to all which each of the known minerals was successfully subjected by the use of apparatus and reagents and the application of heat in different measures (खरपाक—मध्यमपाक—and मृदुपाक),—methods which, if often crude, especially from the absence of independent and isolated mineral acids, were yet in several instances remarkably simple and effective, and which, after all by the use of various Vidas potentially containing mineral acids (aqua regia, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, etc.) virtually accomplished the practical ends kept in view. To these were added several special processes for mercury (e.g. fixation), bringing up the number of mercurial operations to nineteen.