Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-09-01
ELIxIRS THAT HAVE FAILED.

ELIXIRS THAT HAVE FAILED.
new Men Have Sought Through
All Ages TO Seize Immortality.
DR.. Brown-Sequard has in the course
of ages had several predecessors in the
same fascinating school Of research. Not
all of the men who, in the course OF time,
have claimed to discover conservator OF
youth have been as honest in the work as
he, The notorious Count Cagliostro,
whose name is still synonymous with
fraud, was enabled to carry on his gigan-
tic swindles by pretending, among other
things, that he had discovered an "elixir
of immortal youth" Sl53ssss Sl5ssss
Caeliostro, who flourished in the lat
ter part of the eighteenth century, did
lively business in the "elixir," that was
especially popular with the ladies. Gag
liostro assured his dupes that by virtue
of the specific he had already attained
his 15Oth year, and his charming wife,
his accomplice in the swindle, often
talked affectionately of her son as an
"oficer in the Dutch navy"
He and his wife conducted trium-
phant tour through Europe until they
struck the court of st. Petersburg, where
the Empress Catharine and her Scotch
physician, Rogerson, who were skeptical
concerning elixirs, saw through their
deception, and they disappeared. They
came up again in another part Of Europe
and carried on their schemes at fraud
with varying success until Cagliostro
was put in jail at Rome for Free
Masonry. In spite of the virtues of his
sselixir of immortal youth" he died in
the fortress of San Leone in his SD
year. His wife ended her days in a
convent.
Albertus Magnus, who was born in the
latter part of the twelfth century, gained
30 extensive knowledge Of chemistry
that he was commonly reputed to be
sorcerer, and many. legends OF wonder
have come down attached to his name.
Roger Bacon, who was one of the ear.
nest scientific inquirers in the realm OF
the mysterious, fourished in the thir-
teenth century, though his mind was 80
remarkably able and his intuitions 30
clear that he is regarded as having lived
four centuries before his time. He was,
for all practical purposes, modern
thinker, whose conception of science
was just and clear. He completed his
studies at Oxford, although little is
known of his life there. He went over
to Paris ond took the degree of Doctor of
Theology, and in 1850 was back to Ok
ford. He was full of vim and aggressive
in controversy. OF course he got into
trouble on account of his books, and he
spent fourteen years in prison. He
wrote an enormous number of works,
though his best known was his "Opus
Major"
He was a firm believer in astrology
and the philosophers etone, and is re.
ported to have. said that he knew that
the circle had been squared.
Paracelsus was another mysterious
genius of the past, swho, with a great
mind. CROPPED in the gloomy chambers Of
knowledge, and, of course, often went
astrsy. He gave up all the studies Of
the schools aud set out through the world
travelling like journeyman scholar, and
studying, as he said, from nature herself.
He spent years studying all the phe-
affected miners. Of course he acquired
q great deal of knowledge that other peo-
pie did not possess. and his belief in
himself was 80 complete that by sheer
force of self-con6dence he forced others
to listen to and have faith in him.
He had his own theories concerning
the makeup and the moods of nature.
His eagerness to understand the relation
ship of man to the universe led him to
the Kabbalis, where these mysteries, as
he thought, arc explained, and from
these unsubstantisl materials he con.
structed visionary philosophy.
Detective as they may have been and
unfounded on fact, his Kabbalistic doc
trines led him to trace the dependence
Of the human body upon outer nature for
it's susteuance and cure. The doctrine
of signatures. the connection of every
part Of the little world of Ii. Lcan with cor
responding part of the great worl~ "l No.
ture, was painful and false exaggera-
ton of this doctrine, but the idea carried
in it's train that of specifics. Paracelsuss
had seen how bodies were purified and
intensified by chemical operations, and
he thought that if plants and miner.
ais could be made to WELD their
active principles it would surely be
better to employ these than the crude
and unprepared originals. He had, be-
sides by some kind of intuition, arrived
at the conclusion that the operations of
the body we're of chemical character,
and that when disordered they were to
be put right by counter oppositions OF
tQ0 same KIM. IocnnlcAlly ne was nOC
q chemist He did not concern himself,
either, with the composition oil his COM
pounds or with the explanation of what
occurred in their making. If he could
get potent drugs to cure diseases he was
content, and he worked hard in an en-
pirical way to make them. He was
probably, too, believer in the philoso-
piers stone, the fetish of his age.
Ponce de Leon, though he was no
chemist, had an abiding faith that an
elixir of youth flowed in fountain some
where in the world. He became COZ
vinced at one time that the we'll was sit
uated in the newly discovered land Of
America, and came out here to seek il.
He didn't find the fountain, but he did
discover Florida, the land of flowers.
He kept up his search for the fountain of
happy immortality until he died, when it
is to be hoped he found it.
From his day to this there have been
scores of people as earnest as he in
their belief in the existence Of an elixir
of life. Some of them are simple search
ers in the world of affairs, and others
grave savants delving into the depths of
scientific knowledge.-[Chicago Tribune.
Da1ntlea OF the savage.