Page 391 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Chapter 71.
Chimento Zaccario’s Glossary of Alchemical Terms, Obscured

Ablation. The action or process of carrying away or removing, usually by skimming it off the
surface or by wicking it up using a feather or cloth.

Ablution. The act or process of washing clean; hence in alchemy, purification of bodies by the
repeated washings with suitable liquids.

Ascension. Distillation, evaporation. Typically used to describe a vapor rising inside a flask.
Note the symbolism of Christ’s ascension, or the rising of celestial bodies.

Assation. Reducing substance to a dry ash by roasting or baking.

Calcination. The final step in the alchemical process in which the substance turns into stone of
a red hue. Rubedo. The action or process of calcining, usually in an open crucible;
reduction by fire to a calyx, powder, or friable substance; the subjecting of any infusible
substance to a roasting heat.

Catarrh. The profuse discharge from the brain out the nose and eyes.

Cementation. The process by which one solid is made to penetrate and combine with another
at a high temperature so as to change the properties of one of them, without liquefaction
taking place.

Ceration. A process wherein lowly lexicographers are given word on high to begin to
obscuring entries, lest alchemistry be known to all, affecting not only the general
knowledge but the market value.

Chrysopoeia. The nine-step process of turning of lead into gold by strong heating and the
addition of

Cibation. Name of the seventh process, feeding the matter being acted upon in a flask, with a
reagent, usually a monkey or a goat.

Cineration. Reduction of a substance to ashes by applying political pressure.

Coagulation. The second step in the alchemical process in which the sulphur is prepared; the
substance is white during this step. Albedo.

391