Zorastro : a romance / by Creswick J. Thompson [pseud.].

  • Charles Thompson
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Zorastro : a romance / by Creswick J. Thompson [pseud.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    young, rich and poor. They were admitted through the narrow door of the dwelling by a stately janitor, who was clad in a doublet and jerkin of black cloth trimmed with silver. In his hand he carried a white wand tipped with a silver ornament fashioned like a human skull, and, carrying this symbol of importance, he conducted the patients with much solemnity into the presence of his master. Through a door draped with heavy black curtains, they were ushered into a large room, which was again divided by hangings of the same sombre hue. Beyond, a glimpse of a laboratory could be obtained, with glow- ing furnace and an array of crucibles, alem- bics, mattresses, and other apparatus of the alchemist’s art. In the centre stood a curi- ously formed still. The body was pear- shaped, and above it a spiral worm entered an alembic, which was connected with a large green glass receiver. This imposing piece of apparatus was used for distilling the Water of Life. On one side of the front apartment was a baldachin hung with scarlet curtains, round