they have at different times fallen into nearly
similar delusions, that the professors of animal magnetism did not long
maintain their ground; they were soon exposed to public ridicule on the
stage, and shortly became annihilated in their own absurdities.

Other plans for the prolongation of life, little less absurd than
animal magnetism, which have, like every other imposture, "fretted their
hour," deserve to be noticed. The French and Germans have long stood
pre-eminent in the empirical world, though the merit of ingenious and
more plausible emanations of genius may fairly be attributed to the
latter. Animal magnetism; physiognomy, a rational though fallacious
science; phrenology, a doctrine abounding with many singular
manifestions, and possessing claims not to be put down by mere force of
prejudice, are all of German origin.

The Count St. Germain, a Frenchman, realized large sums, by vending an
artificial tea, chiefly composed of yellow saunders, senna leaves, and
fennel seed, which was puffed off under the specious appellation of _Tea
for prolonging life_; which, at that time, was swallowed with such
voracity all over the continent, that few could subsist without it. Its
celebrity was of short duration, and none ever lived long enough to
realize its effects.

The Chevalier d'Ailhoud, another brazen-faced adventurer, presented the
world with a powder, which met with so large and rapid a sale, that he
soon accumulated money enough to purchase a whole county. This famous
powder, however, instead of adding to the means of securing a long and
healthy life, is well known to produce constant indisposition, and at
length to cause a most miserable death; being composed of certain drugs
of a poisonous nature, though slow in their operation.

Count Cagliostro, styled the luminary of modern impostors and
debauchees, prepared a very common stomach elixir, which was sold at a
most exorbitant price under the name of "_balm of life_" It was
pretended, with the most unparalleled effrontery, that, by the use of
this medicine, the count had lived above 200 years, and that he was
rendered invulnerable against every species of poison. These bold
assertions could not fail to excite very general attention. During his
residence at Strasburg, while descanting, in a large and respectable
company, on the virtues of his antidote, his pride met with a very
mortifying check. A physician who was present, and who had taken part in
the conver