quarters of an inch in thickness. Upon one side of this medal gold, without touching the body thereof. Now, the sulphur of was stamped the adjoined inscription,

In pursuance of our promise to explain the various mysteries of these Alchymists and Rosicrucians in as condensed and explicit a manner as possible, we will first enumerate the beneficial qualities of the philosophic stone when used as a medicine, and immediately afterwards resume the contents of the too-littleknown and most precious manuscript work by Dr. Dee, from which our foregoing section (published in last week's" ASTROLOGER") was compiled.

gold doth graduate silver into gold, yet no greater quantity than there hath been of gold. But the body of gold, which must be as white as silver, being reduced upon a cupel with Saturn and a little copper, recovereth its colour from a whiteness to a rich yellowness, its property is restored in like manner, and it all becometh good gold.'

"Sc.-The Philosopher's Silver.

"Taking common salt, and quick or unslacked lime, reverberate them together in a wind furnace with the strongest fire; extract the saltpetre with warm rain water, coagulate it to dryness, mingle again with it fresh quicklime, reverberate it, extract again, and repeat this for a third time. Take then calx of silver (after having prepared it by dissolution in aqua fortis), and mix it with the prepared salt. Putting this into a glass phial, pour on it the common aqua fortis, such as the goldsmiths use, made of saltpetre and vitriol. Draw it off by distillation in hot sand: pour on it fresh aqua fortis; and, having it likewise, repeat this a third time, giving at last very strong fire, so that the matter in the glass may flow very well. Allow it then to cool of itself in the furnace, and the silver will become a single piece of a transparent blue. Extract this with vinegar, until you can extract no more. Edulcorate that which is extracted, so as to cleanse from it every particle of salt. Cohobate vinegar upon the dry sulphur, till it appears like unto a sapphire. Reduce the same silver into small filings, add to it its weight of salammonia, and sublime it in a glass body, when the monia will carry with it the sulphur of luna, of a marvellous pleasant sky colour. Put this sublimate into a glass dish, edulcorate it well with distilled rain water, and the salammonia will be separated. Dry the sulphur of luna, put it into a little receptacle, pour on it good rectified spirits of wine, set it in heat for twenty-four hours, and the spirit of wine imbibeth the sulphur of luna of a fine transparent blue, like a sapphire or ultra-marine, and leaveth some few feces behind, which must be separated and skimmed away. This soul or sulphur of luna, otherwise called the philosopher's silver, was conceived to be peculiarly efficacious in dispelling restlessness and wakefulness during the night-time. About five or six drops of a tineture prepared in the above manner, and mingled with a goblet of generous wine, caused all gloomy and mournful reflections to vanish like dew-vapour before the face of the God of Day; and, administered in similar proportions, it rendered the somnambulist quiet during slumber.

"§ d.-The Tincture of Corals.

"Take red corals, break them to pieces, pour on them a common spirit of salt, and the corals will be dissolved. Draw off, by distillation, the spirit of salt, and edulcorate the residue carefully. To one mark of this powder, take half an ounce of common sulphur, pulverised, and having mingled it together, reverberate the mixture until all the sulphur be burnt away. Grind an equal quantity of camphor with the corals, and burn the camphor likewise away. Then edulcorate the corals well, pour upon them highly rectified, spirits of wine, digest them Afor eight days, when the tincture of the corals will elevate itself, and go into the spirits of wine. Pour off what you have extracted, after that draw off from it the spirits of wine, and there remaineth the tincture of corals behind, in the bottom, like a red fat oil of olives.

It was

The philosopher's stone was believed to be a most powerful and penetrant remedy for every description of disease. single grain, when swallowed, was acknowledged to interpenetrate the body like a divine air, driving therefrom everything pernicious and substituting everything beneficial. conceived so materially to improve a man's frame as to make him, in the emphatic expression of the ancient writers, "a new man, preserving him without any accidents to his age, until that period which was fixen by the most High, for contra mor

tem remedium non est."

Once more the balsamic odour stealeth round the chamber, the weird lamp is relit, the impenetrable curtain, which, for past ages, has screened these portentous secrets from the world, again riseth, the wand pointeth a second time into the laboratory of the alchymist, the voice of the entombed philosopher is again heard :

"Sb.-How to Make an Ounce of Gold out of Half an Ounce. "Take spirit of salts and rectify it with spirit of wine until it become sweetish. Pour this upon the spiritual gold of a purple colour (the formation of which has been already described), and it will simply extract the soul or sulphur of the

This essence was regarded as a wondrous remedy against madness; six drops in a spoonful of wine caused insanity to disappear, comforted the brain, enlivened the faculty of memory, banished misanthropy, sweetened the blood, imparted a glow to the heart, and made the spirits buoyant and cheerful. "§e.-The Solution of Pearls.

"Taking some excellent verdigrease, grind it small, then dissolve it in distilled vinegar, pour off the clear, and throw away the feces. Place the clarified vinegar in a glass vessel, distil it off to a thickness, put it in a cold place, and there will shoot from it a fair vitriol. Turn this vitriol into another glass, and, pouring on it highly rectified spirits of wine, dissolve the vitriol therein to the greatest extent possible; separate the feces from this compound, and afterwards distil the spirit of wine likewise to a thickness. On your setting

tual greatness from its height." A most curious case of this kind is related by Dr. Teste, in his "Manuel Pratique du Magnétisme Animal;" from Dr. Spillan's translation of which we extract it :

"During the months of January and February there was a little calm, but the first of March his madness broke out anew, and the patient demolished every thing he could lay his hands on.

"After having exhausted, without success, all the ordinary resources of the medical art, the last physician they had consulted, the learned M. Sander, took advantage of some moments of calm to induce the patient to let himself be magnetised; I was called in. At my first visit, though I had been informed of all the previous circumstances, I was struck with astonishment and fright on seeing the furious state of this young man, and the havoc which he had committed. I could not but recoil at the idea of risking my own existence in my attempt to save him, an attempt, too, that was to all appearance hopeless. I succeeded, however, in calming my own emotions before the persons who were present at this visit, and I made up my mind. The feeling of my duties to humanity, the desire of restoring an unfortunate young man to his disconsolate family, the ambition to vindicate the honour of my profession, urged me to the resolution of despising every personal danger, and of devoting myself to the destinies of my patient.

- The

days' magnetisation, the critical moment for the patient and for me was decidedly approaching. He foretold to me that in three days he should have a paroxysm of madness which was to last for two hours and a half. This frenzy,' says he to me, "In the month of August, 1819, Mr. Crooswijck, of Rotter-will be so violent, that I cannot answer for the danger you dam, aged twenty years, was attacked with epileptic fits. These will have to incur. It is a great task for you to undertake my fits frequently returned, and assumed such a degree of severity, cure. When my madness will commence to develope itself, that in the month of October following the patient passed into you must allow it to go on for twenty minutes, and then it will a state of frenzy and madness. Four strong men were scarcely be excessive; but after having burst the doors, you must able to hold him. Placed, by way of precaution, in an alcove, suddenly throw yourself upon me, and stop my paroxysm. I he broke with his own hands a strong camp-bed; the doors of do not dare promise you that this great effort will succeed; the alcove, though secured with great strength, fell to pieces but if you do not undertake it, there is not a hope for me: I under his violence; they were obliged to reconstruct them must inevitably perish. The only means remaining for me I three times. have now told you; but mind, in no case will you get out of it without suffering.' He became silent for an instant; and then, with tears in his eyes, he asked me, Will you venture to undertake it?' I was moved to the very soul; I had to sustain the struggle of a thousand different impressions which alternately lacerated my heart. I took my resolution. In the name of God, be it so!' I exclaimed. The poor young man seized my hand, kissed it with transports, expressed his gratitude to me, and advised me to tell him nothing on his awaking of what had occurred in his magnetic sleep. dreaded day appeared; at five in the morning I repair to Mr. Crooswijck's house, accompanied by the worthy surgeon, VanWagening, who, under all these painful circumstances, faithfully afforded me his aid and assistance. Though my heart was oppressed, I formed my plan of conduct. I took off my cravat in order not to be strangled; I took a cordial, and prepared for the attack. A six o'clock, the moment predicted by the patient when in a state of somnambulism, the paroxysm commenced. The madman set up a frightful howling; he tore the clothes about him, the bed-clothes and his shirt. The twenty minutes were nearly elapsed; we took away the pieces of timber which barricaded the doors of his room, and all around me took a precipitate flight. I remained alone: the door of the apartment was shut on me. At a distance I contemplated, not without horror, the frightful figure of my phrenetic patient, like to a ferocious beast; his tongue hung out of his mouth, and his hands were directed towards me like the claws of a tiger: his countenance was really frightful. The fatal moment was come, the battle must begin. Collecting all my force I spring on the unfortunate fellow, and seize him by the shoulders. There we are pitted, one against the other, like two spiteful enemies; he seizes me also by the shoulders, and the struggle commenced. The earth seemed to sink beneath my feet, my hair stood erect on my head. I aroused my courage, blew my breath on the poor madman with all the intensity I could,. knowing by experience that this means gave me most power over him: I had the good fortune to triumph. This terrible struggle, which I sketch with difficulty, had lasted but five minutes, when the patient fell on the ground as if absolutely dead he was in the magnetic sleep. I fell myself quite exhausted by his side. My clothes were torn to pieces. a little," said the somnambulist to me; two more violent paroxysms are still to follow; I shall apprise you of it by making the signal with my hand M. Dr. Wagening and the elder brother of the unfortunate patient came in. I had scarcely recovered from my exhaustion, when the patient gave the fatal signal. These two gentlemen had to support me by the loins; the patient, in his frenzy, made every effort to seize me by the throat; it was only by the intensity of my blowing that I succeeded in keeping him sufficiently removed from me to prevent him from satisfying his rage. Let any one figure to himself my situation; I was just on the point of yielding, when all at once this paroxysm was checked and a calm supervened. After some minutes' rest, the third paroxysm was manifesting itself in a form still more alarming than any of the preceding. I passed once more through the terrible ordeal, but came off victorious.-"It was thought that the evil was now surmounted; already they were shedding tears of joy, the patient himself was covering my hands with the most ardent kisses to testify his gratitude to me. Alas! we had conjured away but the least portion of the storm. In the ordinary magnetisation, and the same day at eleven o'clock before noon, the hour at which I magnetised him, the somnam

"On the following day I undertook my first operation. By the effect of magnetisation, the patient passing into the magnetic sleep became calm; but he experienced a dragging sensation, and convulsive movements in the arms and legs, joined to a sense of fluttering over the entire body. The tongue projected from the mouth, and though he retained his intellectual faculties, a circumstance which I ascertained by the signs he made to me for the purpose of answering some questions I put to him, he was completely deprived of speech. Dreading the explosion of his madness, the terrible effect of which I had constantly before my eyes, I sometimes calmed the motion of the nerves, and sometimes left him his free course, leading him gently to its termination.

"After having slept the magnetic sleep for one hour, the patient awoke, and extended his limbs three times with considerable force. He had no consciousness of what had passed, but he felt himself relieved and comforted. When I left him he was in rather a comfortable state.

"I continued the magnetisation for two days; the magnetic sleep, which was gradually developing itself, was interrupted by fits of frenzy so violent that the patient tore his clothes, his bed, &c. I allowed him to proceed to a certain extent, and then abruptly interrupting his fury, I exercised on him that great magnetic force, by blowing my breath upon him. He generally awoke after a magnetic sleep of an hour, calm and relieved. The effect of magnetisation and of somnambulism increased from day to day. The number of persons who came to be present at the treatment likewise increased daily. Already they were rejoicing at seeing the calm succeed the violent paroxysms. This joy, however, was entirely premature: the frenzy of the patient became so alarming that, not only for myself, but for all those who were to approach him, the enterprise was extremely dangerous. My magnetic force, however, retained its influence over him. After these operations I succeeded in making him pass into a complete state of somnambulism. Then it was declared to me that he could be cured only by magnetism; and announced to me beforehand, with the strictest accuracy, the hours and minutes when his paroxysms would take place. I obtained in this way the know ledge of the danger I should have to encounter, as also of the means of preparing myself to meet it :-"After eight or nine

:

Rest

bulist predicted to me, that for three consecutive days he
would be attacked with madness and hydrophobia; that the
third day the evil would be at its height; that if on that dayida
before four o'clock in the afternoon he had not drunk water
three times, his ruin was inevitable. The first two days
passed away under frightful circumstances. The unfortunate
madman was more dangerous than ever: he broke the strongest
pieces of furniture with his hands, demolished the chimney-
piece and the window-sashes, at the risk of tumbling down the
wall. The terrors of the third day were beyond all conception;
the maniac called for drink the third time; I take the vessel,
but he upsets it, falling on me in order to pull out my teeth.
The fatal hour was going to strike; all was lost. The unfortu-
nate man continued his demolitions, always without hurting
his hands, his only instruments. He is often going even to
break the door! We are all on the point of running away, in
the conviction that we had done every thing that men could
do in order to save him. Four o'clock is just going to strike!
but the thundering voice of the unfortunate man crying out
three times, Drink! drink! drink!' strikes our ears with a
feeling of inexpressible joy; I run up to him, present him the
cup; he hesitates, refuses; I exhaust all my magnetic power
on him, and he drinks.

In which all Questions from Correspondents are answered gratuitously, in accordance with the true and unerring principles of Astrological Science.

TO OUR QUERISTS.-This department of our work involves the solution of "horary questions," so called from a figure of the heavens being erected for the hour in which the question is asked, and from the indicaitons manifest in which the corresponding answers are derived. It the exact hour and day on which they commit the question to paper for our judgment, and the replies will then be given accordingly. As this important feature of the starry science will necessarily occupy considerable time which he is willing to devote, without reward, to benefit the public, THE ASTROLOGER hopes that the liberality of his offer will protect him from the correspondence of those who desire adjudication upon frivolous subjects, or who are merely actuated thereto by motives of idle and foolish curiosity. All subjects on which they may be really anxious, can be solved with absolute certainty; and the election of favourable periods for marriage, speculation, or commencing any new undertaking with advantage, will be cheerfully and readily pointed out from week to week. All communications addressed to "THE ASTROLOGER" will be considered as strictly confidential, and the initials only given in the

oracle.

"Nothing was yet done. In the course of our ulterior mag-will, therefore, be absolutely necessary for all correspondents to specify netisations, some days after the last trials, he predicted to me three other paroxysms, still more terrible, which would occur at different epochs, more or less distant. He would be saved, provided I could continue on him the same treatment.' These three crises really did occur in frightful progression. The unfortunate man was encompassed by a copper girdle, to which had been affixed an iron chain, fastened by strong hooks to a stake fixed in the ground. In the first of these crises he demolished everything that the length of his chain allowed him to reach. Before the second, he was placed in a house which was in a state of demolition. Nothing could resist him. More than two hundred persons came to be witnesses of this formidable delirium. The day preceding the day when the third crisis was to take place, the patient was removed to Schiedam, to an uninhabited house; and there, attached to a long chain, which was fastened to a solid block, he could vent his rage on the thick stone walls. At Schiedam every one was in motion; here, as at Rotterdam, the police were at my disposal, and I had great need of them to keep order among the people, whom curiosity or the idea of seeing a miracle had brought from all parts. The last three crises were got over as the preceding. When restored to his reason, the patient still experienced some nervous attacks, which were soon calmed by magnetisation, and the paroxysms went on diminishing by little and little, and at length returned no more.

HUMMING OF GNATS.-It appears very probable that the humming noise emitted by the gnat when flying about in a dark room is useful to the insect itself, for, as it would be differently modulated according to its distance from, or nearness to, surrounding objects, it may have the effect of preventing its injuring itself by knocking against obstructions to its flight. As a proof of the great difference in sounds arising from even but trifling causes, we have only to take a card in hand and whistle against its edge at a little distance, and then a greater distance, and then against its flat surface at a greater or less distance, and we shall observe that the tone widely differs under each of these circumstances. Now, if we suppose that the gnat knows, from either instinct or experience, that sounds thus differ according to such circumstances as the above, it may learn its situation in a dark room by the variation produced upon its piping noise (which may thus be as serviceable to it in the dark as its sight in the day time), and avoid breaking its wings, or otherwise hurting its by flying against anything in its way. In the same manner, probably, one may explain the utility of the cockchafer (Melontha vulgaris), the dung-beetle (Geotrupes stercoraris), and many other insects.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

SOMNUS.-There is yet another inscrutible property about dreams, not enumerated in our correspondent's catalogue; and this peculiarity is, perhaps, the most startling and unaccountable that the mere materialist or infidel meets with in his metaphysical and physiological studies. We allude to the extraordinary fact, that new characters and incidents are encountered by the dreamer; people, whose features he has never seen in this world, but with whom he holds so natural and uninterrupted an intercourse night after night that he becomes, at length, perfectly acquainted with their dispositions, and would recognise them instantly were they to meet in actual life. A wonderful and authentic instance, to this effect, is extant in a thin quarto volume published during the years 1811, 1812, and 1813, by a physician who had attended, during several months, the individual upon whose mind this extraordinary phenomenon was developed. The patient was a young girl who, from a spinal complaint, was afflicted with a most miserable deformity and contortion of the limbs; and this young creature recounted to her medical adviser, every morning, the dreams with which she had been haunted during the preceding night; dreams of such a marvellous symmetry as to induce that gentleman to note them down from the lips of the unfortunate female. These very visions constitute the mass of the book which we have mentioned, and the beings, who are therein depicted, are so strangely natural, while the incidents follow and originate one another in such a probable and likely manner, as to render the work quite a miniature novel, in its way, at the same time that it is a psychological curiosity. In this narrative the patient herself figures as the heroine, while a tall, dark, handsome, man (different, in every respect, from any one she had ever seen, and really quite an original, in his way) is the hero. This man appears in nearly all her dreams, and is a marvel that would puzzle our correspondent.

MOON IN LIBRA.-The child will recover, you will have to remove, and probably next year will bring your directions forward to marriage.