http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/humourous
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All natural, in the sense of not having been made in a particle accelerator.
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Note that homeopathic ...products... actually do this.
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
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The difference is that unlike homeopathic products here the products actually contain these chemicals.
That one needs an explain-smbc...
Anyway, looks like "green vitriol" = iron sulfate (so it's enriched with iron), "spirit of hartshorn" = amonia (spoiled beans certainly release lots of this), "brimstone" = sulfur, "quicksilver" = mercury, and "aquafortis" = nitrates (on this context, but also nitric acid - afaik, our bodies can't use nitrates for anything).
(EDIT: yes, quicksilver is mercury, not lead.)
I thought quicksilver was mercury.
Aquafortis is specifically nitric acid. It's called that because it can dissolve "any" metal except for gold. Where "any" is "anything they knew about in the middle ages".
also, green vitriol is actually green. And blue vitriol, copper sulfate, is (surprise) blue. Copper sulfate is also what they put in antifreeze as a vomiting agent. I once had a single drop as a mistake, and it works REALLY well.
And the stuff that can dissolve gold: aquaregia
Quicksilver is mercury, but anyway thank you!
Where are you seeing aquafortis
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All from the first result in Duckduckgo. Mostly wikipedia, but I got "aqua fortis" on some dictionary.