rm you that a Servant being touch'd for the same pain,
that had continu'd upon him for twelve years last past, he
touch'd him in the forehead, and the pain went backward; and
that but by his stroking upon the outside of his cloaths, the
pain came down to and out of his foot: the party continues
still well. These Cures were wrought about 3 weeks before
Easter.

And thus much I assure you to be true from him that is
Your Friend and Servant
EDM. SQUIBB.

COVENT-GARDEN, _April 20, 1666_.
At my Lady Verney's, the place of my residence.

While Greatrakes acquired great celebrity on account of the numerous
cures which he performed, he was unable to explain the nature of his
healing powers. In a letter to the Hon. Robert Boyle, he expressed the
belief that many of the pains which afflict men, are of the nature of
evil spirits. "Such pains," wrote he, "cannot endure my hand, nay, not
my glove, but flye immediately, though six or eight coats and cloaks be
put between the parties' body and my hand, as at York House, the Lady
Ranalough's and divers other places, since I came to London."

VAN HELMONT

JOHANN BAPTIST VAN HELMONT, a celebrated Belgian physician, scholar and
visionary, of noble family, was born at Brussels in 1577. At an early
age he began the study of medicine, and was appointed Professor of
Surgery at the University of Louvain. Becoming, however, infected with
the delusions of alchemy, and being possessed of an ardent imagination,
he inclined naturally to the study of occult science, and was infatuated
with the idea of discovering a universal remedy. He was, moreover, a
follower of the eminent theologian, Johann Tauler (1290-1361), founder
of mystic theology in Germany. Van Helmont has been described as an
enthusiastic and fantastic, though upright friend of the truth. He
adhered to the theosophic and alchemistic doctrines of a somewhat
earlier epoch, and was an admirer of the dogmatic pseudo-philosophy of
Paracelsus.

The German writer, Johann Christian Ferdinand Hoefer (1811-1878), said
that Van Helmont was much superior to Paracelsus, whom he took as his
model. He had the permanent distinction of revealing scientifically the
existence of invisible, impalpable substances, namely gases. And he was
the first to employ the word gas as the name of all elastic fluids
except