CHAPTER XI. 

 THE BUDOLPHINE ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. 



"Here dwelleth the physician 

 Whose most infallible nostrum was at fault; 

 There quaked the astrologer, whose horoscope 

 Has promised him interminable years; 

 Here a monk fumbled at the sick man's mouth 

 With some undoubted relic .... a sudary 



Of the Virgin." 



Browning. 



>CTOR Christopher Guarinonius, though admitted- 

 ly a man of great learning, was in the habit of 

 prescribing the nauseous remedies characteristic of 

 medical practice in all countries at the close of the 

 sixteenth century. He was especially fond of an Elixir vitae 

 prepared under his directions, and was always boasting of 

 the wonderful cures it had accomplished; the fame of this 

 panacea extended far beyond the "coasts of Bohemia, " and 

 when Pope Clement VIII. was attacked by a dangerous 

 malady messengers were sent in haste to summon the eminent 

 physician of Prague, who, with the Emperor's consent, ac- 

 cepted the call and made the journey to Rome. As the Pope 

 lived for many years after Guarinonius' visit, the elixir was 

 presumably : 



"A perfect medicine for bodies that be sick 

 Of all infirmities to be relieved," 



1O8 



