Note 17 — ON THE ORIGIN AND IMAGINARY EFFICACY OF AMULETS & CHARMS,

This species of delusion reminds us of the Florentine quack, who gave the countryman his pills, which were to enable him to find his lost ass. The pills beginning to operate on his road home, obliged him to retire into a wood, where he actually did find his ass. The clown, as a matter of course, soon spread the report of the wonderful success of the empiric, who, no doubt, in consequence of this circumstance, reaped an ample reward from the proprietors of strayed cattle.