[41] “De Morbo Gallico.”
[42] “Antiquites de Paris,” Tome III., by Sauval.
[43] “Observations et histoires chirurgiques,” 1670, Geneve.
[44] Antoine Lecocq, “De ligno sancto.”
[45] The use of mercury, larga manu, in frictions was commenced in 1497.
[46] Rabelais himself had attended syphilitic patients at Lyons, and perhaps elsewhere, with more or less success. He says, in fact, in the fifth book of Pantagruel, that among impossible things it is necessary to class a quintessence “warranted to cure the pox, as they say at Rouen.” Now, be it known that syphilis of Rouen was of such a bad type that it passed for an incurable malady. From whence the proverb, “For Rouen pox and Paris itch there’s no remedy.”
[47] “De Rebus Oceanis et de Orbe novo decades.”
[48] “Histoire Philosophique et Politique de l’Occulte.”
[49] Cœlius Aurelianus: “De Acutis Morbis.” Edition Dalechamp, p. 90.
[50] Magic had rank among the sciences of the school of Alexandria 150 years before our era, in a medico-theosophical sect, whose members applied to cosmogony the doctrine of emanation. These admitted that demons come from the source of eternal light, and that man might become their equal by leading a contemplative life. There were a number of such demons, all phenomena of nature, and particularly all diseases were attributed to demonic power. These demons were incorporeal, and their light surrounded certain bodies in the same manner that the sun gleams in water without being contained therein. (See Sprengel). Let it not be forgotten that the Alexandrian Library, the richest institution of the kind in ancient times, and the Temple of Serapis, in which it was installed, were committed to the flames at the instigation of the monks, by order of their creature, the apathetic Emperor Theodosius.