Tripus Aureus or The Golden Tripod is an alchemical book by Michael Maier published in 1618 by Lucas Jennis. It contains three alchemical texts: The "twelve keys" of Basil Valentine, Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy (1477), and The Testament of Cremer.
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Ernst H. Weber, who first described the structure named after him. The Weberian apparatus is named after the German anatomist and physiologist Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795 - 1878). The apparatus was first described in detail by Weber. Only four bones were identified, specifically the claustrum, scaphium, intercalarium and tripus.
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Maria and Daria ('Masha and Dasha') Krivoshlyapova (Мария и Дарья Кривошляповы) (3 January 1950 – 17 April 2003, Moscow) were Ischiopagus tripus conjoined twins from Russia. They were removed from their mother's custody at birth to be studied by Soviet physiologists. Their mother was told that her daughters had died soon after their birth.
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This alchemical book is spuriously attributed to the figure of Basil Valentine, and was first published in 1599. It's presented as a sequence of alchemical operations encoded allegorically, in words to which images have been added. Maier's Latin edition in Tripus aureus contains woodcut illustrations for all twelve keys for the first time. These were engraved by Matthaeus Merian.
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The earliest recorded incidence of a Weberian apparatus is from the fossil fish Santanichthys diasii dating from the Early Cretaceous of Northeastern Brazil. In the aforementioned taxon, the Weberian apparatus is fairly developed; there is a distinguishable intercalarium and a tripus which articulate with the second and third vertebrae respectively. A scaphium can be seen in at least two specimens. The neural arch of the third vertebra has already broadened, almost similar to that of modern ostariophysans.
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Alchemical engraving published by Lucas Jennis in Michael Maier's Tripus Aureus (1618) Jan Bäcklund and Jacob Wamberg categorize alchemical art into the following four groups: Within the first group are the illuminations and emblems found within the alchemical texts themselves. Illustrations appeared in early works such as the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra but were largely absent in medieval works until the mid-thirteenth century. In the early fifteenth century, significant pictorial elements began to appear in alchemical works such as the Ripley Scroll and the Mutus Liber.Barbara Obrist.
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From the second vertebra (V2), the intercalarum and the vertebra's lateral process are reduced and clump together. The plural rib (R1) of the third vertebra (V3) shrinks and moves somewhat ventrally, forming the tripus from a vertebral parapophysis fusing with the pleural rib. The os suspensorium bone of the fourth vertebra (V4) somewhat retains its shape, developing from the pleural rib of the vertebra (R2). The remaining elements of the fifth vertebra (V5), the parapophysis and the articulating rib (R3), including the vertebra itself form the posterior structure of the Weberian apparatus.
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Together, the structure interacts anteriorly with the lagenar otolith set within the skull and posteriorly with the swim bladder via the pleural rib. Postero-ventrally, it is the tripus, the os suspensorium and the third rib that interact directly with the anterior chamber of the swim bladder. The Weberian apparatus functions by transmitting auditory signals straight from the gas bladder, through the Weberian ossicles and then straight into the labyrinth structures of the inner ear. The structure essentially acts as an amplifier of sound waves that would otherwise be only slightly perceivable by the inner ear structure alone.
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The generalized structure of the Weberian apparatus is akin to a skeletal complex of bones and ossicles that are physically connected to the labyrinth auditory complex anteriorly and the anteriormost region of the swim bladder posteriorly. The entire structure is derived from skeletal elements of the first four vertebrae. The involved elements include: the supraneural bones of the skull; modified neural arch bones, specifically the paired claustra and the scaphia; the intercalarium and the lateral processes; the tripus; the os suspensorium from the fourth vertebra; the parapophysis of vertebra number five including the vertebra itself, plus the vertebra's corresponding pleural rib. In addition, a structure composed of fused neural spines form the dorsalmost part of the Weberian apparatus.
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