a magical word, recommended by Serenus Samonicus as an antidote against agues and several other diseases. It was to be written upon a piece of paper as many times as the word contains letters, omitting the last letter of the former every time, as in the margin †, and repeated in the same order; and then suspended about the neck by a linen thread. Abracadabra was the name of a god worshipped by the Syrians; so wearing his name was a sort of invocation of his aid; a practice which, though not more useful, yet was less irrational, than is the equally heathenish practice among those who call themselves Christians, of wearing various things, in expectation of their operating by a sympathy, whose parents were Ignorance and Superstition.