Hermetic
HERMET'IC
HERMET'ICAL, adjective [Gr. Mercury, the fabled inventor of chimistry.]
1. Designating chimistry; chimical; as the hermetic art.
2. Designating that species of philosophy which pretends to solve and explain all the phenomena of nature from the three chimical principles, salt, sulphur and mercury; as the hermetic philosophy.
3. Designating the system which explains the causes of diseases and the operations of medicine, on the principles of the hermetical philosophy, and particularly on the system of an alkali and acid; as hermetical physic or medicine.
4. Perfectly close, so that no air, gas, or spirit can escape; as a hermetic seal. The hermetic seal is formed by heating the neck of a vessel till it is soft, and then twisting it, till the aperture or passage is accurately closed.
Hermetic books, books of the Egyptians which treat of astrology.
Books which treat of universal principles, of the nature and orders of celestial beings, of medicine and other topics.