I was at the Mathematical School, where the Master taught his Pupils after a Method scarce imaginable to
us in Europe. The Proposition and Demonstration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with ink composed
of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to swallow upon a fasting Stomach, and for three Days
following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digested, the Tincture mounted to his Brain,
bearing the Proposition along with it. But the Success hath not hitherto been answerable, partly by some
Error in the Quantum or Composition, and partly by the Perverseness of Lads, to whom this Bolus is so
nauseous, that they generally steal aside, and discharge it upwards before it can operate, neither have they
been yet persuaded to use so long an Abstinence as the Prescription required.
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift,
from the 1726 edition.
PART III:
A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB
AND JAPAN
CHAPTER V.
The Author permitted to see the grand Academy of Lagado. The Academy largely
described. The Arts wherein the Professors employ themselves.
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