[1] A fabric made of goat's hair and silk, or wool and cotton.
[2] Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738), a celebrated Dutch physician and
philosopher.
[3] Jan Baptista Van Helmont (1577-1644), a celebrated Flemish
physician and chemist.
Dr. Knipperhausen had been half his life engaged in seeking the
short cuts to fortune, in quest of which so many a long lifetime is
wasted. He had passed some years of his youth among the Harz[1]
mountains of Germany, and had derived much valuable instruction
from the miners touching the mode of seeking treasure buried in the
earth. He had prosecuted his studies, also, under a traveling sage
who united the mysteries of medicine with magic and legerdemain.
His mind, therefore, had become stored with all kinds of mystic
lore; he had dabbled a little in astrology, alchemy, divination;[2]
knew how to detect stolen money, and to tell where springs of water
lay hidden; in a word, by the dark nature of his knowledge he had
acquired the name of the "High German Doctor," which is pretty
nearly equivalent to that of necromancer. The doctor had often
heard rumors of treasure being buried in various parts of the
island, and had long been anxious to get on the traces of it.
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