Tachenius, Otto

Tachenius, Otto. Otto Tachenius his clavis to the ancient hippocratical physick or medicine made by manual experience in the very fountains of nature, whereby through fire and water, in a method unheard of before, the occult mysteries of nature and art are unlocked and clearly explained by a compendious way of operation. London Printed by Tho. Thomas, and are to be sold by Nath. Crouch. .., 1677. [14], 120, [13] p. 

Tachenius, Otto. Otto Tachenius his Hippocrates chymicus discovering the ancient foundation of the late viperine salt with his Clavis thereunto annexed / translated by J.W. London Printed and are to be sold by W. Marshall and Iohn Marshall, 1696. 

Tachenius, Otto. Otto Tachenivs his Hippocrates chymicus, which discovers the ancient foundations of the late viperine salt, and his Clavis therunto / translated into English by J.W.. .. London Printed for Thomas James, and are to be sold by Nath. 

Tachenius, Otto. 1677. Hippocrates Chymicus. . . with his Clavis, trans. J. W. 

Salt formation as a criterion for an acid-base interaction has a long history (Walden, 1929). Rudolph Glauber in 1648 stated that acids and alkalis were opposed to each other and that salts were composed of these two components. Otto Tachenius in 1666 considered that all salts could be broken into an acid and an alkali. Boyle (1661) and the founder of the phlogistic theory, Stahl, observed that when an acid reacts with an alkali the properties of both disappear and a new substance, a salt, is produced with a new set of properties. Rouelle in 1744 and 1754 and William Lewis in 1746 clearly defined a salt as a substance that is formed by the union of an acid and a base. 

Otto Tachenius his clavis to the ancient Hippocratical physick or medicine" has special t.p. and separate paging with imprint London Printed by Tho. James, and are to be sold by Nath. Crouch. .., 1677. 

Early acid-base theories — The word acid is derived from the Latin word acidus (sour) and the word alkaline is derived from the Arabic al-qily meaning calcinated ashes of plants . Already in the Middle Age, the most important strong acids, e.g., sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid had been described by alchemists. Until 1650, Paracelsus and others had characterized acids by their special properties. The terms acid and base were used for the first time by Otto Tachenius in 1666. Around 1675, Robert Boyle had stated that acids have a high dissolution power and can be characterized... 

On Tachenius, see James L. Partington, A History of Chemistry, 4 vols. (London Macmillian, 1961), 2 291-96 Heinz-Herbert Take, Otto Tachenius, 1610-1680 Ein Wegbereiter der Chemie zwischen Herford und Venedig (Bielefeld Verlag fur Regionalgeschichte, 2002). 

Otto Tachenius, Hippocrates Chymicus (London, 1677), 87 and 89 Clavis, (London, 1677) 13. 

Potassium sulfate (poe-TAS-ee-yum SUL-fate) is also known as potash of sulfur, sulfuric acid dipotassium salt, arcanum duplicatum, and sal polychrestum. It is a colorless or white granular, crystalline, or powdery solid with a hitter, salty taste. It occurs in nature as the mineral arcanite and in the mineral langheinite (K2Mg2(S04)3). The compound was known to alchemists as early as the fourteenth century, and was analyzed hy a number of early chemists, including Johann Glauber (1604-1670), Robert Boyle (1627-1691), and Otto Tachenius (c. 1620-1690). 

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