Thus I have found that long before VAN HELMONT, who has the credit of the discovery, PARACELSUS knew how to prepare silicate of soda, or water-glass.
Hypnotism as practiced at the present day, and with regard to its common results, was familiar to JOHANN JOSEPH GASSNER, a priest in Suabia, of whom LOUIS FIGUIER writes as follows in his _Histoire du Merveilleux dans les Temps Modernes_, published in 1860: "GASSNER, like the Englishman VALENTINE GREAT-RAKES, believed himself called by divine inspiration to cure diseases.

According to the precept of proper charity he began at home--that is to say on himself.
After being an invalid for five or six years, and consulting, all in vain, many doctors, and taking their remedies all for naught, the idea seized him that such an obstinate malady as his must have some supernatural evil origin, or in other words, that he was possessed by a demon.
"Therefore he conjured this devil of a disorder, in the name of Jesus Christ to leave him--so it left, and the good GASSNER has put it on record that for sixteen years after he enjoyed perfect health and never had occasion for any remedy, spiritual or otherwise.
"This success made him reflect whether all maladies could not be cured by exorcism.

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The experiment which he tried on the invalids of his parish were so successful that his renown soon opened through all Suabia, and the regions roundabout.