De metallorum ortu & causis

most shamefully perverts the words of God. To this are added the usual shameless behaviors of that disgraceful man, both his frequenting of prostitutes and his drunkenness temulentia, which I willingly pass over, because they were the least of all the crimes to which he was inclined. In short, he was a horrendous monster of nature. Therefore, let no one doubt that the medicine by which Alchemists are called physicians was demonic dæmonicam. On that account, Thomas Erastus, without controversy the most excellent of the physicians and philosophers of our time, refuted him so skillfully and ingeniously that it seems superfluous for us to deal further with his fallacy and trickery. Nevertheless, it will not be useless to examine two notable medicines pharmaca which are more commonly used today by our Paracelsians, especially in this region: one of which is very dangerous, the other absurd and plainly ridiculous. The first they call Ladanum a resinous preparation, although it differs greatly in both power and appearance from that which is obtained from the cisto rockrose plant.