was arrested in Italy, and brought to trial as
a sorcerer, a similar accusation was made against Arnold; but he managed
to leave the country in time, and escape the fate of his unfortunate
friend. He lost some credit by predicting the end of the world, but
afterwards regained it. The time of his death is not exactly known; but it
must have been prior to the year 1311, when Pope Clement V. wrote a
circular letter to all the clergy of Europe who lived under his obedience,
praying them to use their utmost efforts to discover the famous treatise
of Arnold on _The Practice of Medicine_. The author had promised, during
his lifetime, to make a present of the work to the Holy See, but died
without fulfilling it.

[Illustration: ARNOLD DE VILLENEUVE.]

In a very curious work by Monsieur Longeville Harcouet, entitled _The
History of the Persons who have lived several centuries and then grown
young again_, there is a receipt, said to have been given by Arnold de
Villeneuve, by means of which any one might prolong his life for a few
hundred years or so. In the first place, say Arnold and Monsieur Harcouet,
"the person intending so to prolong his life must rub himself well, two or
three times a week, with the juice or marrow of cassia (_moelle de la
casse_). Every night, upon going to bed, he must put upon his heart a
plaster, composed of a certain quantity of oriental saffron, red
rose-leaves, sandal-wood, aloes, and amber, liquified in oil of roses and
the best white wax. In the morning, he must take it off, and enclose it
carefully in a leaden box till the next night, when it must be again
applied. If he be of a sanguine temperament, he shall take sixteen
chickens; if phlegmatic, twenty-five; and if melancholy, thirty, which he
shall put into a yard where the air and the water are pure. Upon these he
is to feed, eating one a day; but previously the chickens are to be
fattened by a peculiar method, which will impregnate their flesh with the
qualities that are to produce longevity in the eater. Being deprived of
all other nourishment till they are almost dying of hunger, they are to be
fed upon broth made of serpents and vinegar, which broth is to be
thickened with wheat and bran." Various ceremonies are to be performed in
the cooking of this mess, which those may see in the book of M. Harcouet
who are at all interested in the matter; and the chickens are to be fed
upon it for two months. They are then fit for table, and are to be