Note 363 — Chapter VIII · FRIAR BACON
Reading edition
A verbum œnigmaticum. The Phœnix is a singular animal, as Bacon justly observes, inasmuch as it springs from its own ashes. Its name, therefore, may be figuratively used with perfect propriety to denote animal charcoal, an efficacious agent in clarifying solutions of impure saltpetre.—Bloxam’s “Chemistry,” 8th ed., p. 488.