'
'Will it make me eighteen again?' cried Susie.
'It is guaranteed to do so,' answered Dr Porhoet gravely. 'Lesebren, a
physician to Louis XIV, gives an account of certain experiments witnessed
by himself. It appears that one of his friends prepared the remedy, and
his curiosity would not let him rest until he had seen with his own eyes
the effect of it.'
'That is the true scientific attitude,' laughed Arthur.
'He took every morning at sunrise a glass of white wine tinctured with
this preparation; and after using it for fourteen days his nails began to
fall out, without, however, causing him any pain. His courage failed him
at this point, and he gave the same dose to an old female servant. She
regained at least one of the characteristics of youth, much to her
astonishment, for she did not know that she had been taking a medicine,
and, becoming frightened, refused to continue. The experimenter then took
some grain, soaked it in the tincture, and gave it to an aged hen. On the
sixth day the bird began to lose its feathers, and kept on losing them
till it was naked as a newborn babe; but before two weeks had passed
other feathers grew, and these were more beautifully coloured than any
that fortunate hen had possessed in her youth.
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