This is the preparation of balm which Mr. Boyle (the celebrated chemist) mentions in his works; and in which he tells us that “Dr. Le Fevre” gave him an account of it, “in the presence of a famous physician, and another virtuoso, to whom he applied, as knowing the truth of what he said, that an intimate friend of his, whom,” says Mr. Boyle, “he named to me, having prepared the primums ens of balm, to satisfy himself the better of its effects, made a trial upon himself, and took of it according to the prescription, for above a fortnight; long before which, his nails, both of his hands and feet, began to loosen themselves from the skin, (but without pain,) which, at length, falling off of their own accord, this gentleman keeps yet by him in a box for a rarity; but would not pursue the trial any farther, being satisfied with what he had found, and being in no need of such physic; but having given of the same medicated wine, for ten or twelve days, to a woman that served in his house, and who was near seventy years of age, without letting her know what he expected, the peculiar signs of youth in females40 became so apparent that she was alarmed, and he did not prosecute the experiment any farther. And when I asked,” says Mr. Boyle, “why he made no trial on beasts, it was answered, that though he had but little of the medicine, yet he put apart an old hen, and moistening her food with some drops of it for a week, about the sixth day she began to moult her feathers by degrees till she became naked; but before a fortnight was passed, she began to regain others, which, when they were come to their full growth, appeared fair and better colored than at first.” And he added, “that besides that her crest was raised she also laid more eggs than she was wont to do before.” In our childhood, our mothers’ maids have so terrified us with an ugly devil having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, and a tail at his breech; eyes like a basin, fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, a skin like a negro, and a voice roaring like a lion, whereby we start and are afraid when we hear one cry Boh! and they have so frayed us with bull-beggars, spirits, witches, unchins, elves, hags, faries, satyrs, pans, fauhes, sylvans, kitt-with-the-candlestick, tritrons, centaurs, dwarfs, giants, imps, calcars, conjureres, nymphs, changelings, incubus, Robin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the man-in-the-oak, the hellwain, the firedrake, the puckle, Tom Thum, Hobgoblin, Tom Tumbler, Boneless, and such other bugbears, that we are afrad of our own shadows, insomuch that some never fear the devil but on a dark night; and then a polled sheep is a perilous beast, and many times is taken for our father’s soul, especially in a churchyard, where a right hardy man hitherto durst not to have passed by night but his hair would stand upright.