Elixir

“ How do you know that this essence which the Dervish possessed was the elixir of life, since, it seems, you have not tried on yourself what effect its precious drops could produce? Poor wretch, who once seemed to me so awfully potent! do you come to the Antipodes in search of a drug that only exists in the fables by which a child is amused?"
"The elixir of life is no fable," cried Margrave, with a kindling of eye, a power of voice, a dilatation of form, that startled me in one just before so feeble. "That elixir was bright in my veins when we last met. ”

“ From these he had extracted scarcely enough of the elixir to fill a third of that little glass which I have just drained. He guarded every drop for himself. Who that holds healthful life as the one boon above all price to the living, would waste upon others what prolongs and recruits his own being? Therefore, though he sold me his secret, he would not sell me his treasure."
"Any quack may sell you the information how to make not only an elixir, but a sun and a moon, and then scare you from the experiment by tales of the danger of trying it! ”

“ I must tell you, Reverend Fathers, that when she was alive, she was as familiar with the herbs of the mountainside, as the old Corsican blackbird. Now, before she died, she developed a unique elixir made from several different kinds of herbs that we had gathered in the Alpilles.... All this was a long time ago, but, with the help of St. Augustine, and your permission, Father Abbot, I should, if I search thoroughly, be able to find the ingredients for this elixir. We will then only have to bottle it, and sell it at a good profit. ”

“ Your health is weak, your nerves unstrung. That elixir is a powerful vivifying tonic, acting with great rapidity on the entire system, and rushing through the veins with the swiftness of ELECTRICITY. I am accustomed to it; it is my daily medicine. But I was brought to it by slow, and almost imperceptible degrees. A single teaspoonful of that fluid, mademoiselle, administered to anyone not prepared to receive it, would be instant death, though its actual use is to vivify and strengthen human life. ”

“ Nature reflected in a mirror, would be what his pictures under the influence of our elixir, would have been like, and for a true work of art, in the highest acceptation of the term, something further is needed."
These words of my father removed my last regret for the loss of the elixir, and my sons and grandsons who are now grown men have, with God's help, brought it to pass that the burghers of Leipsic are willing once again to associate with the Ueberhells. ”

“ Major. Not much. “Vene” called you a quack.
Dennis. Faith, “Vene” ought to know, for she’s a duck herself.
Wiggins. All forsake me. “The Great Elixir” is doomed. No, it isn’t. (To audience.) Ladies and gentlemen, you have had a dose of it to-night; may I hope that you will recommend it. It may not perform all the wonderful cures it pretends. What medicine can? If it has pleased you, and you are inclined to take another dose, my purpose here is accomplished, and I shall still have great faith in the power of The Great Elixir.
R. Dennis, Fingers, Aspen, Wiggins, Herbert, Harry, Greenbax. ”

“ This elixir was a very powerful stomachic, possessed of great stimulating properties, tending to augment vital sensations. It is a fixed law of nature that everything which increases the vital forces tends to abridge their duration. Concentrated and potent stimulants, which are usually the active principle of most elixirs, although for the time increasing physical strength, are in truth very prejudicial to longevity. ”

“ It is the basis for spirits, tinctures and elixirs; spirits being solutions of volatile substances in alcohol; tinctures, solutions of active principles of plants, generally obtained by maceration and percolation. An elixir is a cordial flavored with orange and syrup, used as a vehicle for other remedies and as a stomachic.
Its action is very extensive. It is used extensively in medical preparations. It is a good application to prevent bed-sores. The addition of one dram of alum to a pint makes it more effective. Hot applications relieve pain in face neuralgia, cold in the face or toothache. ”

“ One would imagine that the man to whom the elixir had been so beneficial would set a greater value upon it than others, and would be more careful to preserve it for his children and grandchildren. Not so. ”

“ The man on the sofa shuddered.
“What is the third drug?” Roger asked, lying limp and flat on his couch.
“It is the Elixir of Life,” said the doctor. “I am not its discoverer; the old alchemists knew it well, but they failed because they sought to apply the elixir to a normal—that is, a diseased and faulty—body. I knew better. One must have first a body abnormally healthy, abnormally strong. Then, not the elixir, but the two drugs that prepare. ”

“ Paregoric Elixir originated with Le Mort, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Leyden from 1702 till 1718, when he died and was succeeded by Boerhaave. A modification of Le Mort’s formula was given in the P.L., 1721, as Elixir Asthmaticum, thus:—Honey and liquorice root, of each 4 oz.; flowers of benjamin and opium, of each 1 drachm; camphor, 2 scruples; oil of aniseed, 1⁄2 drachm; salt of tartar, 1 oz.; spirit of wine, 2 lb. Quincy (1724) says, “there is not any composition of our shops to be compared to it in the intention in which it is ordered.” ”

“ When recently from England came the news of the discovery of vaccination and I saw how a small drop could penetrate through a man's entire system, then I regretted that my father had thrown away the elixir. If I still possessed it I would, despite my advanced age, try the experiment of inoculating myself with it. The exhalation of the elixir acted only on the tongue, and hence its fatal effect. if, however, it had been possible to infiltrate a desire for truth into the whole man, then, ah then! ”

“ Elixir, e-liks′ėr, n. more fully, Elixir vitæ, or Elixir of life, a liquor once supposed to have the power of indefinitely prolonging life or of transmuting metals: the quintessence of anything: a substance which invigorates: (med.) a compound tincture. [Low L.,—Ar. al-iksīr, the philosopher's stone, from al-, the, iksīr, prob. from Late Gr. xērion, a desiccative powder for wounds—Gr. xēros, dry.] ”

“ The old lady also took great pleasure in dressing the boy very finely, and as he would one day be rich, she had no fear for his future, save that on his twenty-fifth birthday he was to receive his father's elixir, concerning which, loyal to her oath, she maintained silence towards everyone. ”

“ The idea, not infrequently attributed to the alchemists, that the Elixir would endow one with a life of endless duration on the material plane is not in strict accord with alchemistic analogy. From this point of view, the effect of the Elixir is physiological perfection, which, although ensuring long life, is not equivalent to endless life on the material plane. “The Philosophers’ Stone,” says Paracelsus, “purges the whole body of man, and cleanses it from all impurities by the introduction of new and more youthful forces which it joins to the nature of man.” ”

“ He is never at a loss. All creatures on earth and powers in heaven are submissive to him; he can cure all diseases, and can himself live as long as he chooses, for he holds the elixir of life, which Adam and the early fathers employed before the Flood, and by which they attained to great longevity.
The philosopher's stone, known also as the great elixir, or the red tincture, when shaken in very small quantity into melted silver, lead or other metal, was said to transmute it into gold. In minute doses it was supposed to prolong life and restore youth, and was then called elixir vitæ. ”

“ It is almost a mirthful sight, to witness the busy crowd at the dispensary bar, carrying off their bottles of106 variously coloured liquids,—the elixir, and not the aqua vitæ, which is to pour strength into their veins and infuse it into their muscles. ”

“ So also Nature sheweth us an Elixir, is that which of Natural things may be made compleatly perfect in its proper Essence. Such is the Elixir of Myrrh, Saffron, and yellow Epatick-Aloes. But whence they have this power, we have shewed in the generation of them. But we come now to the Process, (omitting their beginning, of which we spake before) which runs thus.
“Recipe of Myrrh, Epatick, Alloes, and Saffron, of each one Part, which digest together in a Pellican placed in Sand, for two Months with gentle heat. Then by Alembeck separate the Oil from the Fæces without Adustion. ”

“ Have you really measured the world by scrutinies, or through alembics and crucibles? For you must indeed be a great chemist, and the elixir you administered to my son, which recalled him to life almost instantaneously" --
"Oh, do not place any reliance on that, madame; one drop of that elixir sufficed to recall life to a dying child, but three drops would have impelled the blood into his lungs in such a way as to have produced most violent palpitations ”

“ The same term, more fully elixir vitae, elixir of life, was given to the substance which would indefinitely prolong life; it was considered to be closely related to, or even identical with, the substance for transmuting metals. ”

“ If the Elixir of Life is of any value, those who take it will improve in health; now my friend who has been taking it has improved in health, and therefore the elixir is of value as a curative agent. Hyslop. ”

“ Madame was a practical woman, and it seemed an easy thing to do as the Arab desired. If she could get relief from those dreadful pains it would be well worth while to undertake a little trouble and responsibility by caring for Ali Dubh's other and more precious flask. "Very well," said she. "I agree." The Arab's face flushed with joy. "Good," he cried; "I am saved! Guard well my precious flask--the one of gold. Show it to no one--not even to your good husband. Remember that diamonds and rubies could not buy the Great Elixir--the marvelous Essence of Vitality. ”

“ So I—ah—I was forced to experiment for the proper dosage. One cubic centimetre of the yellow fluid—the elixir—it developed, would restore a twenty-pound animal to early maturity. Seven to ten centimetres would be required for an adult human being. But I had to expend eight cubic centimetres to verify this fact in my experiments on small animals. I have only two centimetres left. But I do have a number of very elderly rats at my dwelling. I will let you choose any one of them; I will administer the elixir, and allow you to take the animal away and care for it. ”

“ He says: “Let the two sulphurs, viz., the white and the red, be mingled with the oil of the white elixir that they may work the more strongly, and you shall have the highest medicine in the world to heal and cure human bodies, and to transmute the bodies of metals into the most pure fine gold and silver”. ”

“ Madame hesitated, for just then she had a very bad twinge indeed. "You think you can cure my pains?" she asked. "I know it!" declared the Arab. He put his hand in a pocket and drew out another flask--a mate to the one containing the Great Elixir; only this was made of solid silver instead of gold. "This flask," said Ali Dubh, "contains a positive cure for rheumatism. It will not fail. It never has failed. Take it and use it to make yourself well. Five drops in a bowl of water are enough. Bathe well the limbs that ache, and all pain will be gone forever. ”

“ So it appears that the alchemists in the beginning of the fourteenth century were taken with such admiration for the discovery of alcohol that they likened it to the elixir of long life and the mercury of the philosophers. Yet we have to be cautious against taking every text concerning the mercury of the philosophers or the elixir of long life as applicable to alcohol.
The elixir of long life is a fancy of ancient Egypt. ”

“ For they knew that the compact body of gold hath no affinity with the vital Spirits, therefore they have chosen only the finest part of gold to their Elixir, viz. Its tincture, which they have radically joyned with the spirit of Wine, and being joyned, have made them spiritual or volatile, so that neither can be separated from each other in the fire, and being in the fire, are sublimed, or fixed by a longer digestion ”

“ I know that the Cathartic Pills are a drastic compound which may be as bad as poison to half the people who swallow them; that the Elixir is an absurd farrago of a dozen incompatible things; and that the Cancer Cure might as well be bottled ditch-water. ”

“ They are needlessly complex and irrational.
Dosage: 0.3 Cc. or 5 minims (N.F.) .
Elixir Formatum (Elix. Format.) , Elixir of Formates, N.F.—Potassium formate (5%) , sodium formate (5%) and aromatic elixir. Absolute alcohol content about 15 per cent.
Dosage: 8 Cc. or 2 fluidrachms (N.F.) .
Elixir Formatum Compositum (Elix. Format. Co.) , Compound Elixir of Formates, N.F.—Sodium formate (3%) , magnesium formate (2.5%) , strontium formate (2.5%) , lithium formate (1%) , quinine formate (0.8%) , compound spirit of cardamom, acetic ether, alcohol, glycerin and distilled water. ”

“ But Captain Athelstan came to the front far more easily, if less profitably. He sent a testimonial to the Perfect Cure Elixir. The Elixir was accustomed to testimonials from the suffering millions. The spelling generally had to be corrected before they were fit for publication. It also received testimonials which were useless, such as: "I took only one bottle of your Elixir and I got fourteen days." But a testimonial from a Captain of the Guards was a gold-mine. The Captain's was the best name the Elixir had ever had, and he had enjoyed more diseases than it had hitherto professed to cure. ”

“ Nevertheless, worse ingredients than œnanthic acid may lurk in the delicate draught, and the Devil’s Elixir may be made fragrant, and sweet, and transparent enough, as French moralists well know, for the most fastidious palate. ”