Sal mirabile

It should he known that my sal-mirabile may he separated and prepared from all common salts, hut from some more easily than from others. For not only common cooking salt, hut also saltpeter, alum, and vitriol can yield it. But because alum and vitriol possess many sulphureous and mineral qualities which are troublesome to separate, and saltpeter is burning and volatile, therefore we had better leave these salts alone and prepare our sal-mirabile only from common cooking or kitchen salt, separate from it its earthiness by the aid of fire and water, and use it to the honor of God and the service of our neighbor as we know or can and first ... 

Concerning the external form, color, taste, and odor of the sal-mirabile. 

These properties of the sal-mirabile agree with those of sodium sulphate, though the description of the preparation of the salt is vague—from common salt by aid of fire and water. Nevertheless, all later writers identify his sal-mirabile with the salt now known as sodium sulphate. The powers that Glauber attributes to this salt are absurdly... 

Sodium sulphate, Na2S04.—The sulphate is often called Glauber s salt, on account of its application in the seventeenth century as a medicine by the physician Glauber, the specific being known as sal mirabile Glauberi. Its purgative action seems to be a phenomenon dependent on osmosis. 

He called sodium sulfate Sal Mirabile (Wonder Salt). 

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