In Ben Jonson's play _The Alchemist_, _Surley_, who is the sceptic of the piece, says to Subtle, who is the alchemist-- ...

Alchemy is a pretty kind of game, Somewhat like tricks o' the cards, to cheat a man With charming ...
What else are all your terms, Whereon no one of your writers 'grees with other?
Of your elixir, your _lac virginis_, Your stone, your med'cine, and your chrysosperme, Your sal, your sulphur, and your mercury, Your oil of height, your tree of life, your blood, Your marchesite, your tutie, your magnesia, Your toad, your crow, your dragon, and your panther; Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your adrop, Your lato, azoch, zernich, chibrit, heutarit, And then your red man, and your white woman, With all your broths, your menstrues, and materials, Of lye and egg-shells, women's terms, man's blood, Hair o' the head, burnt clout, chalk, merds, and clay, Powder of bones, scalings of iron, glass, And moulds of other strange ingredients, Would burst a man to name?
To which _Subtle_ answers, And all these named Intending but one thing; which art our writers Used to obscure their art.
Was not all the knowledge Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols?
Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables?
Are not the choicest fables of the poets, That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom, Wrapp'd in perplexed allegories?
The alchemists were very fond of using the names of animals as symbols of certain mineral substances, and of representing operations in the laboratory by what may be called animal allegories.

The _yellow lion_ was the alchemical symbol of yellow sulphides, the _red lion_ was synonymous with cinnabar, and the _green lion_ meant salts of iron and of copper.

Black sulphides were called _eagles_, and sometimes _crows_.

When black sulphide of mercury is strongly heated, a red sublimate is obtained, which has the same composition as the black compound; if the temperature is not kept very high, but little of the red sulphide is produced; the alchemists directed to urge the fire, "else the black crows will go back to the nest." [Illustration: A salamander lives in the fire, which imparts to it a most glorious hue.
This is the reiteration, gradation, and amelioration of the Tincture, or Philosopher's Stone; and the whole is called its Augmentation.
FIG.