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Paracelsus
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Paracelsus was a medical reformer who introduced a new concept of disease and the use of
chemical medicines. He was a controversial figure as he condemned traditional science
and medicine. He did not obtain a secure academic position or permanent employment.
His new concept of disease emphasized its causes to be external agents that attack the body,
contrary to the traditional idea of disease as an internal upset of the body's four humors :
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According to Paracelsus treatment was to be aimed to prevent these agents of disease. He advocated
the use of chemicals rather than herbs to prevent disease. He used alchemy for the preparation of
these chemical, thus changing the emphasis of the alchemical art. Rather than searching for the
elixir of life and the philosopher's stone, he used the art of alchemy to make medicine.
Many of the scientific debates of the late sixteenth century were centered on the innovations of
Paracelsus.
Called by some 'the Luther of medicine', Francis Barrett in his 'Biographia Antiqua' attributes the following titles to Paracelsus:
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Developments in medicine during Paracelsus' lifetime
In medicine the works of Galen, Hippocrates and Dioscorides were newly translated from Greek into Latin. The recovery of the medical writings of Celsus was highly influential because they presented medical terminology in Latin. The result was a return to ancient establishment medicine and a returned reliance of the writings of Galen known as 'the prince of physicians' There was at the same time corrected translations of ancient authors and the discovery of new manuscripts leading to a revival in interest to Aristotelian philosophy. The discovery of another ancient work was to also have a profound effect, especially on Paracelsus. The recovery of the corpus hermeticum a group of treatises written by Hermes Trismegistus was to be a highly influential work for some scholars. The authors of these works believed that a magus/magician would be able to understand men, the microcosm, through his study of the macrocosm, since the former was a perfect representation of the latter. Some physicians believed this theory to be the key to their work. Hermes appealed to some church fathers, but also to the great figures in the art of alchemy. Traditional alchemy believed in the transmutation of the base metals to gold and the separation by chemical means of the pure essence of a substance from its impurities. Through such processes the true divine signatures impressed on earthly things by the Creator for their proper use might be rediscovered. Therefore man could learn more of the Creator while recovering his gifts through labour, including medicinal substances. Thus, by 1500 the impact of the newly recovered texts was leading back to an increased respect for Aristotle, Galen and other ancient authorities, but also through the corpus hermeticum and other mystical texts there was at the same time an emphasis on natural magic, the relationship of man to the macrocosm. This was the world in which Paracelsus lived and worked. There were those who were returning to traditional medicine with a reliance on mathematics and the physics of motion for the understanding of nature. While at the same time there were those who sought a more mystical and religious basis of knowledge and turned to chemistry as a key to man and nature. This was to have a profound impact during the life of Paracelsus. |
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The Life of Paracelsus Paracelsus- Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus Von Hohenheim was born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland in 1493, a year after Columbus' first voyage to the New World. He was a contemporary of Nicholas Copernicus, Martin Luther and Leonardo da Vinci. His – Wilhelm Bombast de Riett father was a physician and an illegitimate member of the Bombast (Banbast) family of Swabia, who practised medicine from 1502-1534 at Villach in Carinthia. Paracelsus' father practised medicine in Einselden and in a number of mining towns. It is likely that Paracelsus learnt some practical medicine at home through observing his father, as well as some folk medicine. He would also have been introduced to alchemy due to his father's interest in the art. In mining towns he would have observed metallurgical practices as well as the diseases that affected the men who worked the mines. It is also documented that he was initiated into the secrets of alchemy and astrology by Abbot Tritheim of Wurzburg. He seems to have been taught by several bishops but most mention is made of Trithemius due to his interest in the occult. Trithemius was also famed as the instructor of Henry Cornelius Agrippa. Between 1513-1516 Paracelsus left home and began a long period of travel. He travelled and studied in Italy, most notably Ferrara under Johannes Manardus (1462-1536). He may have taken some form of medical degree but there is no evidence of a medical qualification during his lifetime other than his own testimony. Most critics doubt he ever received a formal degree. He did some practical work at the Fugger mining school at Hutenberg, near Villach and was apprenticed at the Siegfried mines at Swaz. whilst researching mineralogy, medicine, surgery and chemistry under the guidance of Fugger, he was forced to leave after trouble with the authorities over his studies in necromancy. He from there lived the life of a wanderer supporting himself through a variety of means. From his own writings it seems that Paracelsus visited the Iberian Peninsula, Pomerania, Poland, Lithuania and Russia, had been to the tin mines of Cornwall and Sweden and had served as an army surgeon with the Dutch and Venetians. According to his own accounts he was taken prisoner in Russia by the tartars and brought before the Grand Cham at whose court he became a great favourite. Finally he accompanied the Cham's son on an embassy from China to Constantinople, the city in which the supreme secret. The universal dissolvent (the alkahest) was imparted to him by an Arab. Paracelsus settled in Strasbourg in 1526. In 1526 his life took a dramatic turn. Johannes Froben, (Frobenius) the Basle humanist and publisher had been suffering with long term leg problems and was advised by doctors to have his leg amputated, to save him from dying. Frobenius appealed to Paracelsus for medical help and with the help of Paracelsus as his physician made a quick recovery. Shortly after this Erasmus of Rotterdam, who was a friend of Frobenius, wrote to Paracelsus, describing his own illness. He appealed to Paracelsus for advice, and following treatment recommended by Paracelsus, Erasmus recovered. Soon Paracelsus gained a noteworthy reputation and was offered an appointment to a university chair and as municipal doctor to the town council of Basle. At His opening speech on his appointment at the university Paracelsus broke with the tradition of Galen followed by many of his colleagues. He said: 'Thanks to the pot offered me by the Basle authorities, which is an honour, I can proceed to teach my students my methods, expounding for a two hour period every day my precepts of treatment with the most diligence for the utmost benefit of my audience' However, Paracelsus did uphold the Hippocratic principle that the place of the doctor was by the patient's sickbed and declared: 'The doctor's character can influence the patient's recovery more than any medicine' At the university he broke with tradition by lecturing in German instead of the customary Latin. He then proceeded to cause uproar by burning the works of Galen and Avicenna in public, declaring that they had held back the progress of medicine for centuries. He then accused his colleagues of propagating falsehood.Not surprisingly he soon returned to his life as a wandering physician. There is evidence that during this second exile Paracelsus stayed at Colmar in 1526 and Nuremburg in 1530. However he again came into conflict with the doctors of medicine, many of whom denounced him as an impostor. Although once again, he proved his skills by his successful treatment of several cases of elephantitis, which he followed up during the next ten years by a series of cures that were remarkable for his time. According to Franz Hartman in his book Paracelsus he then went to Machren, Kaernthen, Krain and Hungary and finally to Salzburg in Austria. In Austria, Hartman writes : 'He was invited by the Prince Palatine, Duke Ernst of Bavaria, who was a great lover of the secret art of alchemy.' However, he contracted a short sickness and died soon after. He died in Salzburg in 1541 when he was only forty eight. Some writers claim that his life was cut short by a scuffle with assassins in the pay of the orthodox medical faculty, but there is no evidence to back this story up.Although a wanderer, and possibly without formal qualifications to his name and undoubtedly a controversial figure, Paracelsus nonetheless made his own contribution to the history of medicine. It is likely that his life as a traveller enabled him to absorb a range of knowledge and experience crucial to his career. He was a chemical pathologist and a vitalist. According to Paracelsus, the body's manifestations were subject to chemical and vital laws. He introduced the concept of metabolic disease and was hugely concerned with issues of hygiene. He demonstrated his practical knowledge in his works on surgery. Unfortunately, due to his burning of the works of Galen, he was not gain the recognition he probably deserved for his originality of thought and the cures he performed with his mineral medicines. He was interested in the treatment of syphilis and concluded that mercury was effective as a treatment whilst guaiac was useless. Paracelsus had derided the use of gauiac in the treatment of syphilis, claiming its only benefit was to the coffers of the Fuggers who held the import monopoly on the drug. He had planned to print eight books on the French Disease but this was banned due to a decree based on the opinion of the dean of the Leipzig medical faculty, Heinrich Strower, a friend and beneficiary of the Fugger family. Through Paracelsus chemical remedies were introduced into medicine and many new products were used by pharmacists. |
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Written works Opus Chyrurgicum 1565 Opus Paramirum (1531), dedicated to Joachim de Watt (Vadianus), the humanist and at that time acting mayor of St. Gall, where the book was published and where Paracelsus lived for two years. The Carinthian Trilogy (1538) – dedicated to the authorities of the land where Paracelsus was living at the time. The Tartarus – inscribed to the theologian and jurist friend of his youth, Johannes Von Braut, Paracelsus wrote a Treatise on the diseases of miners which many consider to be the first work on occupational disease. He discussed diseases that 'deprive man of reason' and he recognised the connection between cretinism and goitre. He also wrote on epilepsy and dancing mania. |
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