156 PARACELSUS 



attracts the ^mercurium menstrui mulierum,' The moon 

 exerts a certain evil influence periodically every month, 

 and the ' menstruum mulierum ' is renewed periodically 

 every month, and during such periods there is an especi- 

 ally strong sympathy between them." 



" Women should know such things and pay attention 

 to them, else they may run great danger. It is a known 

 fact that during the time of a plague many more women 

 die than men. It is also known that women who, on 

 account of their age, have lost the power to menstruate, 

 are more powerful than others to effect evil spells and 

 sorceries, and to injure men and animals.^ 



" If you take turpentine and distil it, the spirit of 

 turpentine will go away and the rosin remain ; and if 

 you mix the rosin again with the spirit, you will have 

 your turpentine again as it was before. In a similar 

 way the human blood contains an airy, fiery spirit, and 

 this spirit has its centre in the heart, where it is most 

 condensed, and from which it radiates, and the radiating 

 rays return to the heart. Thus the world has its fiery 

 spirit prevading the atmosphere, and its centre is called 

 the sun, and the influences radiating from the sun return 

 to that centre. The sun radiates heat and attracts the 

 vapours of the earth, and likewise the heart of man 

 attracts the ' humidum menstrui,* which is a poisonous 

 planetary exhalation of the Microcosm of woman. The 

 * spiritus vitce cerebri ' of an insane person is attracted to- 

 wards the moon in the same manner as the needle of the 

 compass is attracted towards the Pole, and such a person 

 will therefore — especially at the time of the new moon, 



^ This was a common belief during the Middle Ages, and many a po<ir 

 old woman has been burned to death for having been suspected of being 

 a witch. This, however, does not invalidate the statements of Paracelsus. 

 In worxien, on the whole, the will is more active than in men, and they 

 are less liable to exercise self-control. A woman having become disap- 

 pointed in love and embittered with the world becomes a suitable instru- 

 ment for the powers of evil to act through her organism. Woman is 

 more powerful for good and for evil than males, because she represents 

 will and substance, and man only the imagination. 



