ispvtationvm de Medicina nova Philippi Paracelsi, Pars Prima:
in qua quae de remediis svperstitiosis & Magicis curationibus ille
prodidit, praecipue examinantur a Thoma Erasto in Schola Heydebergensi,
professore_. (Basiliae, 1572. Parts 2 and 3 appeared the same year, and
Part 4 in 1573.)

Gilbert had no more love for Paracelsus than for Albertus Magnus or others
of the magic-mongers. Indeed the few passages in Paracelsus on the magnet
are sorry stuff. They will mostly be found in the seventh volume of his
collected works (_Opera omnia_, Frankfurt, 1603). A sample may be taken
from the English work publisht in London, 1650, with the title: _Of the
Nature of Things, Nine Books; written by Philipp Theophrastus of Hohenheim,
called Paracelsvs_.

"For any Loadstone that Mercury hath but touched, or which hath been
smeered with Mercuriall oyle, or only put into Mercury will never draw Iron
more" (p. 23).

"The life of the Loadstone is the spirit of Iron; which may bee extracted,
and taken away with spirit of Wine" (p. 32).

[11] PAGE 3, LINE 13. Page 3, line 11. _Encelius_ (or _Entzelt_, Christoph)
{8} wrote a work publisht in 1551 at Frankfurt, with the title _De re
metallica, hoc est, de origine, varietate, et natura corporum metallicorum,
lapidum, gemmarum, atque aliarum quae ex fodinis eruuntur, rerum, ad
medicine usum deservientium, libri iii_. This is written in a singular
medley of Latin and German. Gilbert undoubtedly took from it many of his
ideas about the properties of metals. See the note to p. 27 on _plumbum
album_.

[12] PAGE 3, LINE 20. Page 3, line 21. _Thomas Aquinas._--The reference is
to his commentaries upon the _Physica_ of Aristotle. The passage will be
found on p. 96 _bis_ of the Giunta edition (Venet., 1539). The essential
part is quoted by Gilbert himself on p. 64.

[13] PAGE 3, LINE 39. Page 3, line 45. _pyxidem._--The word _pyxis_, which
occurs here, and in the next sentence as _pyxidem nauticam_, is translated
_compass_. Eleven lines lower occurs the term _nautica pyxidula_. This
latter word, literally the "little compass," certainly refers to the
portable compass used at sea. Compare several passages in Book IV. where a
contrasting use is made of these terms; for example, on pp. 177 and 202.
Calcagninus, _De re nautica_, uses the term _pyxidecula_ for an instrument
which he describes as "vitro intecta." On p. 152, line 9, Gilbert uses the
non-classical noun _compassus_, "boreale lilium comp