PHILOSOPHY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 429 



Quatre, that that vaunted counterpoison was ineffi- 

 cacious ! * 



It is really laughable to observe how timidly and 

 cautiously the disciples of Bacon ventured to sub- 

 stantiate the simplest truths that happened to be at 

 variance with popular prejudice. The vulgar justly 

 regarded it as an extraordinary feat, when they were 

 told of pearl-divers being able to remain under water 

 so long as they were said to do by wonder-telling 

 travellers ; but the philosophers at once explained 



* The physicians of the sixteenth century believed the horn 

 of the Unicorn to be a universal antidote against all kinds of 

 poison, and assure us, that the animal used to " dip it in the 

 water to purify and sweeten it ere it would drink ;" it is added, 

 that for the same reason other beasts would wait to see this 

 creature drink before them. This valuable horn was bought by 

 kings and nobles, who appointed officers of state to immerse it 

 in their cup before they drank, with full confidence in its effi- 

 cacy as the guardian of royalty from all attempts of an assassin ; 

 and hence the proud position which the Unicorn now holds in 

 this country as one of the supporters of the royal arms. The 

 price at which so valuable a medicine was sold is almost incre- 

 dible : Andrea Racci, a physician at Florence, affirms the pound 

 of sixteen ounces to have been at one time dispensed in the 

 apothecaries' shops for 1536 crowns, when the same weight of 

 gold was only worth 148 crowns ! During the prevalence of 

 the great plague in London, no longer ago than the time of 

 Charles the Second, in the year of our Lord 1666 not yet two 

 hundred years since the philanthropic author of the ' Loiino- 

 logia ' laments bitterly the excessive dearness of the Unicorn's 

 horn, which was still regarded as an infallible remedy for that 

 " cruell peste " ; at the same time, however, congratulating 

 himself as the discoverer of an admirable substitute for the 

 expensive nostrum, in the shape of " lively toads baked to a 

 fine powder." 



