He turned this situation to the best account. He sold Spanish white, and other cosmetics, to the ladies of the court; and instead of the disgusting decoctions of the Galenists, he administered the remedies of Paracelsus under the pompous titles of _tincture of gold_, _magistery of the sun_, _potable gold_, &c. By these methods he succeeded in amassing a prodigious fortune, but was not fortunate enough to be able to keep it. Gaspard Hoffmann, professor at Frankfort, a well-informed and enlightened man, published a treatise, the object of which was to expose the extravagant pretensions and ridiculous ignorance of Thurneysser. This book drew the attention of the courtiers, and opened the eyes of the elector. Thurneysser lost much of his reputation; and the methods by which he attempted to bolster himself up, served only to sink him still lower in the estimation of men of sense. Among other things, he gave out that he was the possessor of a devil, which he carried about with him in a bottle. This pretended devil was nothing else than a scorpion, preserved in a phial of oil. The trick was discovered, and the usual consequences followed. He lost a process with his wife, from whom he was separated; this deprived him of the greatest part of his fortune. In 1584 he fled to Italy, where he occupied himself with the transmutation of metals, and he died at Cologne in 1595. Thurneysser extols Paracelsus as the only true physician that ever existed. His Quintessence is written in verse. In the first book _The Secret_ is the speaker. He is represented with a padlock in his mouth, a key in his hand, and seated on a coffer in a chamber, the windows of which are shut. This personage teaches that all things are composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury, or of earth, air, and water; and consequently that _fire_ is excluded from the number of the elements. We must search for the secret in the _Bible_, and then in the _stars_ and the _spirits_. In the second book, _Alchymy_ is the speaker. She points out the mode of performing the processes; and says that to endeavour to fix volatile substances, is the same thing as to endeavour to trace white letters on a wall with a piece of charcoal. She prohibits all long processes, because God created the world in six days. His method of judging of the diseases from the urine of the patient deserves to be mentioned. He distilled the urine, and fixed to the receiver a tube furnished with a scale, the degrees of which consisted of all the parts of the body. The phenomena which he observed during the distillation of the urine, enabled him to draw inferences respecting the state of all these different organs.