en disputed; but his claim to
be considered the first of the magnetisers can scarcely be challenged. It
has been already mentioned of him, in the part of this work which treats
of alchymy, that, like nearly all the distinguished adepts, he was a
physician; and pretended, not only to make gold and confer immortality,
but to cure all diseases. He was the first who, with the latter view,
attributed occult and miraculous powers to the magnet. Animated apparently
by a sincere conviction that the magnet was the philosopher's stone,
which, if it could not transmute metals, could soothe all human suffering
and arrest the progress of decay, he travelled for many years in Persia
and Arabia, in search of the mountain of adamant, so famed in oriental
fables. When he practised as a physician at Basle, he called one of his
nostrums by the name of azoth--a stone or crystal, which, he said,
contained magnetic properties, and cured epilepsy, hysteria, and spasmodic
affections. He soon found imitators. His fame spread far and near; and
thus were sown the first seeds of that error which has since taken root
and flourished so widely. In spite of the denial of modern practitioners,
this must be considered the origin of magnetism; for we find that,
beginning with Paracelsus, there was a regular succession of mineral
magnetisers until Mesmer appeared, and gave a new feature to the delusion.

Paracelsus boasted of being able to _transplant_ diseases from the human
frame into the earth, by means of the magnet. He said there were six ways
by which this might be effected. One of them will be quite sufficient as a
specimen. "If a person suffer from disease, either local or general, let
the following remedy be tried. Take a magnet, impregnated with mummy,[65]
and mixed with rich earth. In this earth sow some seeds that have
a congruity or homogeneity with the disease; then let this earth, well
sifted and mixed with mummy, be laid in an earthen vessel; and let the
seeds committed to it be watered daily with a lotion in which the diseased
limb or body has been washed. Thus will the disease be transplanted from
the human body to the seeds which are in the earth. Having done this,
transplant the seeds from the earthen vessel to the ground, and wait till
they begin to sprout into herbs; as they increase, the disease will
diminish; and when they have arrived at their full growth, it will
disappear altogether."

[65] Mummies were of several kinds, and