THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES
must have been a powder containing mercury analogous to the
kermes? of the druggist.] Meanwhile the mistress of the dead
man wept and called him back to life with the most tender
words. After an hour and a half of these attentions, Leriche
held a mirror before the patient’s face, and found the glass
slightly clouded. They redoubled their efforts, and soon ob-
tained a still better marked sign of life. They then put him
in a well warmed bed, and a few hours afterwards he was
entirely restored to life. The name of this person was Candy.
He lived from that time without ever being ill. In 1845 he
was still alive, and was living at Place du Chevalier du Guet, 6.
He would tell the story of his resurrection to any one who
would listen to him, and gave much occasion for laughter to
the doctors and wiseacres of his quarter. The good man
consoled himself in the vein of Galileo, and answered them:
“You may laugh as much as you like. All I know is, that
the death certificate was signed and the burial licence made
out; eighteen hours later they were going to bury me, and
here I am.”
CHAPTER III
THE GRAND ARCANUM OF DEATH
WE often become sad in thinking that the most beautiful
life must finish, and the approach of the terrible Unknown
that one calls death disgusts us with all the joys of existence.
Why be born, if one must live so little? Why bring up
1 Made by boiling black antimony sulphide with sodium carbonate solution.
Used in gout and rheumatism and some skin diseases on the Continent, rarely
in England. TRANS,
281