Note 148 — LETTERS TO MADAME DE GRIGNAN[11] FROM 1671 TO 1690. (continued 4)

The time was at hand when the most pompous names given to the most complicated mixture, served to vail the ignorance of the chemists, physicians, and apothecaries, and to increase their bills. Potable gold was one of those whimsical remedies, of which muriatic acid was the basis. The solution of gold, which was added to it, was only used to swell the expense. Powdered pearls were also sometimes used to make their drugs still dearer. The severe Guy-Patin had no mercy upon these quacks. He calls them Arabian cooks, and laughs at their farrago. He, and some of his medical friends, prided themselves upon having destroyed this colossal extortion. Their triumph was premature. The cheap medicines they pretended to have restored, were not at that time received by people of rank; and it appears that Corbinelli was treated like a nobleman, whether he would or not.