Note 32 — CHAP. III.

Paracelsus performed most of these cures by mercury and opium, the use of which latter drug he had learned in Turkey. Of mercurial preparations the physicians of his time were ignorant, and of opium they were afraid, as being “cold in the fourth degree.” Tartar was likewise a great favourite of Paracelsus, who imposed on it that name, “because it contains the water, the salt, the oil, and the acid, which burn the patient as hell does:” in short, a kind of counterbalance to his opium.