Excerpt from The Alienist and Neurologist, 1909, Vol. 30: A Journal of Scientific, Clinical and Forensic Neurology and Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuriatry; Intended Especially to Subserve the Wants of the General Practitioner of Medicine Bacon, when referring to the researches of the alchemists for the philosopher's stone, says, that they performed the oflice of the husbandman, who, in seeking for a hidden treasure, turned up the soil, and pulverized the earth, thereby rendering it better fitted for the purposes of vegetation. Although the schoolmen were baffled in their attempts to discover the es sence of the soul, and to ascertain, with any degree of satis faction to their own minds, the precise number of angelic spirits who could pirouette at the same instant upon the point of a needle, they nevertheless opened a path for the philosopher amidst the dreary forest which he had to traverse, and pointed out to him the dangerous portions of his journey, in which they themselves had stumbled and fallen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.