This will be considered
as a decisive proof of your medical skill, and enable the public to
ascertain the efficacy of your extolled elixir." The count took the
alarm, made a number of apologies, but could not be prevailed upon to
touch the pills. The physician swallowed both immediately, and proved by
his apothecary, that they might be taken with perfect safety, being only
made of common bread. Notwithstanding the shame of this detection,
Cagliostro still retained numerous advocates by circulating unfounded
reports, and concealing his real character by a variety of tricks.
The inspired father Gassner, of Bavaria, ascribed all diseases,
lameness, palsy, etc, to diabolical agency, contending from the history
of Job, Saul, and others recorded in sacred writ, that Satan, as the
grand enemy of mankind, has a power to embitter and shorten our lives by
diseases. Vast numbers of credulous and weak-minded people flocked to
this fanatic, with a view of obtaining relief which he never had the
means to administer. Multitudes of patients, afflicted with nervous and
hypochondriacal complaints, besieged him daily; being all stimulated by
a wild imagination, eager to view and acknowledge the works of Satan!
Men eminent for their literary attainments, even the natural
philosophers of Bavaria, were hurried away by the stream, and completely
blinded by sanctified imposture.
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