Verbum Dismissum, by Count Bernard Trevisan, 15th Cen.

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The seed putrefies when a (1) salt of the same nature with it, dissolved in a convenient (2) liquor, does by the

assistance of a gentle heat (3) penetrate, analyze and rarify the substance of the seed, that the included spirit may, out

of its subject matter, form a convenient (4) habitation or body for itself, in which it may perform the offices of natural

generation and seminal multiplication.

[...] The heat which promotes this putrefaction must be so mild and temperate that the liquor in which the resolving

salt lies may remain still in and about the matter, and not be laved or evaporated from it. [...] The body putrefying must

not be removed out of the matrix in which the putrefaction was begun until that which is intended be fully perfected.

[...] When all is well united by purification or putrefaction, then she continues to bake it without separating the

impure, until all is become a black glittering and heavy earth

The Chemists Key, by Henry Nollius, 1617 AD

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The body will not turn black suddenly, but it will have been getting darker and darker during the previous

imbibing stage.

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The first colour which appears after the silver colour of the amalgamated body, is not perfect blackness, but only a

darkish white; the blackness becomes more pronounced day by day, until the substance assumes a brilliant black

colour. This black is a sign that the dissolution is accomplished, which does not come about in one hour, but

gradually, by a continuous process;

A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby, by Eirenaeus Philalethes, 1694 AD

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When the whole mass has turned black then you know it has putrefied completely. This is a great sign,

because you will now be more than half way to completing the Stone.

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The substance has now become of a uniform colour, namely, as black as pitch, and neither vapours, or winds, or any

other signs of life are seen; the whole is dry as dust, with the exception of some pitch-like substance, which now and

then bubbles up; all presents an image of eternal death.

An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King, by An Anonymous Sage and Lover of Truth, 1645 AD

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When you are sure that the salt is entirely saturated, then you need to turn up the heat a little. It's difficult to

give an exact temperature since it depends on many factors, but just turn up the heat little by little until the

body starts to become dry. But the heat still needs to be low enough that the moisture will rain down, the

difference only being that during imbibing the salt had to be always moist, whereas now you want the salt to

dry out between the rains.

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the earthly Body of the Sun is totally solved, and decomposed, and robbed of all strength (the Body, which was first of

a muddy impurity, changing to a coal-black colour, called by the Sages the Raven's Head, within the space of forty

days), and is thus despoiled of its Soul [the moisture]. The Soul is borne upward, and the Body, being severed from the

Soul, lies for some time, as if dead, at the bottom of the still, like ashes. But if the fire is increased, and well tempered,

the Soul gradually descends again in drops, and saturates and moistens its Body, and so prevents it from being

completely burned and consumed. Then, again, it ascends and descends, the process being repeated

The Sophic Hydrolith, Or, Water Stone of the Wise, by Anonymous, 17th Cen.

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Avicen saith, that heat causeth blackness first, in a moist body; then the humidity being consumed, it putteth off or

loseth its blackness; and as the heat increaseth, or is continued, so it grows white.

The Root of the World, by Roger Bacon, 13th Cen.

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Slowly slowly the body will start getting whiter, and may pass through different colors, including one that

looks a bit reddish. Don't worry about these colors; we just need the body to get white.

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But as soon as the highest degree of intense blackness has been reached (there being no idle intervals in our work),

that colour begins little by little to yield to another [white]. The time during which this blackness is developed is very

long, and so is the time during which it disappears; but it is only for one moment that the blackness neither increases

nor decreases: for things find rest only in that which is the end of their being, but blackness is not the end of our

substance.

[...] In the course of this change from white to black, the substance naturally passes through a variety of intermediate

colours; but these colours (being more or less accidental) are not invariably the same, and depend very much on the

original proportion in which the two substances are combined. In the second stage, during which the substance

changes from black to white, it is already far purer, the colours are more lucid, and more to be depended upon. In the

two phases there are intermediate colours; but in the first they are more dingy and obscure than in the second, and