Of the phial of Cagliostro, Cardan relates that he had this phial twice exhibited to him, and complains bitterly of having seen nothing, after the anthem _Sancte Michael_, but some bubbles that issued from the bottom, though it was believed that these bubbles were angels! He says, "_Nihil tamen omnino vidi poste hanc invocationem nisi bulas pauculas quasdam ex imo gutti fundo exæstuantes_." Aulus Gellius and Hero mention tricks of this kind practised by the Egyptians. Roger Bacon, the alchymist, was excommunicated by the pope, and imprisoned ten years, for supposed dealings with the devil. Equally absurd to a man of reflection, are the observations of antiquated writers on spontaneous generation, by heat. Borello (_Physical History_) tells us, "that fresh water craw fish may be regenerated, by their own powder, calcined in a crucible, then boiled in water with a little sand, and left to cool, for a few days; when the animalcula will appear swimming merrily in the liquor, and must be then nourished with beef blood, till they attain the proper size to stock your ponds with."[11] The Sieur Pogeris and M. de Chamberlan, both agree with Signior Borello, but, in the chemistry of the matter, they add that the operation must be performed, _during the full of the moon!_ If this _lunar system_ be adopted, would not the _crab_ also, have been a more favourable _sign_ to have ruled the nativity of _craw fish_? Swift, however, alludes to these agencies, fallacious as they are, in the following lines: "So _chymists_ boast they have a power, "From the dead ashes of a flower, "Some faint resemblance to produce, "But not the virtue, taste, or juice." Rochos, equally absurd with Borello, says, in _The Art of Nature_, that the ashes of _toads_ will produce the very same effect, as the powder of _crabs' eyes_! Reasoning upon that ridiculous and unnatural principle of Cæsalpinus, in his comment on Aristotle, _Quæcumque ex semine fiunt, eadem fieri posse sine semine_, the procreation of eels from rye-meal, or mutton broth was predicated. _Julius Camillus_, however, would out-do nature herself; for _Amatus Lusitanus_ affirms, that he has seen his phials full of _homunculi_ complete in all their parts! Paracelsus (_De Rerum Natura_,) had the same and many other absurd notions. What, we may truly say, has not been palmed upon the world, when we are told, that the following translation from a Hague Gazette, which appeared in the _British Evening Post_, No. 1645, contained facts, which were confidently believed by the ignorant: