built for him a well arranged laboratory in the rear of his 

 magnificent castle at Krumau; Michele required for his ex- 

 periments large sums of money and promised his lordship 

 splendid results. The renowned elixir was compounded as 

 follows : 



Elixir Michclii. 



Colcothar 6 oz. 



Fused salt 5 dr. 



Myrrh of Alexandria 4 oz. 



Sugared Aloes purified 4 oz. 



Mastic 3 oz. 



Saffran ^ oz. 



Flour of Sulfur 1 & V a Ib. 



Pulverize well in a mortar, mix finely and heat twelve 



hours in an alembic at a moderate heat. 

 One drachm of this elixir administered in syrup of lemons 

 or honey-water is most efficacious against the plague, 

 fevers, pleurisy, colic, pain in the lungs, and diseases of 

 the liver. 



At the close of the report the president of the Academy 

 said he hoped the members would test this simple remedy and 

 bear witness to its virtues at a future meeting.* 



Doctor Michael Maier then addressed the society on the 

 antiquity and nobility of medicine; "it is,'* said he, " a divine 

 science, even God's theology, for the Almighty wrote His 



* Chinese physicians of the present day have made little advance beyond those 

 of the sixteenth century. A Chinaman who has a large practice in San Francisco 

 among highly respectable Americans prescribed the following abominable decoction 

 as a panacea for a variety of dissimilar diseases : 



Chinese Panacea. 

 Dried lizard 

 Saffron 

 Rubber bark 

 Peppermint 

 Lpvage 

 Liquorice 



Beans, a peculiar species, 

 Dried locusts 

 Water bugs 

 Silk worms 

 Pith of a Chinese tree 

 Elm bark 



A pinch of each boiled in one quart of water down to the volume 

 of one pint. Dose a teaspoonful as often as required. 



Ill 





