Phial containing a remnant of the "innocent-looking white powder"
which, though prescribed by his physician, reduced Francis Leicester to
what Miss Helen Leicester (sister of Francis, and a woman of considerable
spirit and imagination; see accompanying photograph) described as "a dark
and putrid mass, seething wth corruption and hideous rottenness, neither
liquid nor solid." According to Dr. Chambers, who was consulted in the
case, a quantity of this "rather uncommon" but not dangerous chemical had,
before being purchased by young Leicester at a chemist's shop, been subjected,
over a period of many years, to certain recurring variations of temperature
(ranging from 40o to 80o) which proved sufficient
to convert it, by means a complex and entirely accidental process, into
the terrible Vinum Sabbati, the infamous wine of the Witches'
Sabbath (See the appendix to Payne Knight's monograph upon this subject).
In the quantity ingested by the unfortunate young man, this substance had
the effect of causing his body to revert to a primitive and eventually
to a primordial state. (Provenance: Bequest of Dr. Haberden).
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