Glauber was a German mediciner and alchemist, who was born at Carlstadt in 1603. There are no authentic records of his life, but he was a profuse writer and left many treatises on medicine and alchemy.
He discovered and prepared many medicines of great value to pharmacy of which many are commonly used, as for example the familiar preparation known as Glauber’s Salts. He firmly believed in the Philosopher’s Stone and the elixir vitae. Concerning the former he stated, «Let the benevolent reader take with him my final judgment concerning the great Stone of the Wise; let every man believe what he will and is able to comprehend.
Such a work is purely the gift of God, and cannot be learned by the most acute power of human mind, if it be not assisted by the benign help of a Divine Inspiration. And of this I assure myself that in the last times, God will raise up some to whom He will open the Cabinet of Nature’s Secrets, that they shall be able to do wonderful things in the world to His glory, the which, I indeed, wish to posterity that they may enjoy and use to the praise and honor of God.»
Among Glauber’s principle works are: Philosophical Furnaces, Commentary on Paracelsus, Heaven of the Philosophers or Book of Vexation, Miraculum Mundi, The Posperity of Germany, and Book of Fires. A.G.H.
Source: 81, 184.