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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
I guess once a universal solvent had caused something to dissolve what would be left would be a solution of the solvent plus whatever had dissolved in it. So it would no longer be the universal solvent it once was.
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85 |
Thanks for the welcome back. I just recently got DSL, so I'm actually able to get the posts to load within a reasonable time (instead of ten responses in a half hour, for example).
Ali
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
<mumble> ... chopped liver ... <grumble>
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247 |
Well, a universal solvent would be the ultimate paradox, wouldn't it?...since it would also have to dissolve itself. Am I missing something here? If "alchemy" is the 'science' of turning (transmuting) lead into gold (or some other base metal into precious metal), wouldn't an "Alkahest" simply be the solvent which effectuated that particular transmutation? In other words, an "Alkahest" would be a solvent only for the metals it acted upon transmutationally. It follows that an "Alkahest" could be collected in a glass beaker, a leather pouch, or, perhaps, even a metal container which happens to be all base metal or all precious metal, but not both.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,713 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,713 Likes: 2 |
chopped liver
Sorry, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander!
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
alkahest is not directly related to alchemy per se: first used in med.L. by Paracelsus, and believed to have been arbitrarily invented by him with a form simulating Arabic. Used in the same forms in most of the European languages. so the alkahest is the universal solvent imagined by the alchemists.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
"Well, a universal solvent would be the ultimate paradox, wouldn't it?...since it would also have to dissolve itself. "
A prime proposition of alchemy was "similia similibus solvuntur". As corollary, ipsa ipsem solvitur'. Don't bother trying to parse my Latin, it is imparsible.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508 |
it is imparsibleNice one, Dr. Bill!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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