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Paracelsus (born 11 November or 17 December 1493 in Einsiedeln, Switzerland - 24 September 1541) was an alchemist, physician, astrologer, and general occultist. Born Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, he took the name Paracelsus later in life, meaning "beside or similar to Celsus", a Roman physician from the first century CE.
Biography Paracelsus was born at Einsiedeln, Switzerland, of a Swabian (Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim) chemist father and a Swiss mother. He was brought up in Switzerland, and as a youth he worked in nearby mines as an analyst. He started studying medicine at the University of Basel at the age of 16, and later in Vienna. He gained his doctorate * degree from the University of Ferrara. He later journeyed to Egypt, Arabia, the Holy Land, and Constantinople seeking alchemists from whom to learn. He pursued medical treatments that were considered ludicrous in the Western world. Paracelsus was the disseminator in Europe of the medieval Islamic alchemists. * Instead of pouring boiling oil onto wounds to cauterize them; or if they were on a limb, to let them become gangrenous and then to amputate the limb, Paracelsus learned that wounds would heal themselves if allowed to drain and prevented from becoming infected. On his return to Europe, his knowledge of these treatments won him fame. Paracelsus rejected Gnostic traditions, but kept much of the Hermetic, neoplatonic, and Pythagorean philosophies; however, Hermetical science had so much Aristotelian theory that his rejection of Gnosticism was practically meaningless. In particular, Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Agrippa and Flamel; Paracelsus did not think of himself as a magician and scorned those who did, though he was a practicing astrologer, as were most, if not all of the university-trained physicians working at this time in Europe. Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus' medicine. In his Archidoxes of Magic Paracelsus devoted several sections to astrological talismans for curing disease, providing talismans for various maladies as well as talismans for each sign of the Zodiac. He also invented an alphabet called the Alphabet of the Magi, for engraving angelic names upon talismans. Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine. He used the name "zink" for the element zinc in about 1526, based on the sharp pointed appearance of its crystals after smelting and the old German word "zinke" for pointed. He used experimentation in learning about the human body. His hermetical views were that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man, the microcosm, and Nature of the macrocosm. He took an approach different from those before him, using this analogy not in the manner of soul-purification but in the manner that humans must have certain balances of minerals in their bodies, and that certain illnesses of the body had chemical remedies that could cure them. (Debus & Multhauf, p.6-12) He summarized his own views: "Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of gold and silver. For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines." (Edwardes, p.47) (also in: Holmyard, Eric John. Alchemy. p. 170) Indeed, the remnants of alchemical traditions can still be seen in modern medicine. For instance, the Caduceus has been adopted as the prime symbol of western medicine. Paracelsus gained a reputation for being arrogant, and soon garnered the anger of other physicians in Europe. He held the chair of medicine at the University of Basel for less than a year; while there his colleagues became angered by allegations that he had publicly burned traditional medical books. He was forced from the city after having legal trouble over a physician's fee he sued to collect. The perception of Paracelsus as being arrogant is the origin of the word bombastic (from Bombastus) to describe an arrogant and abusive attitude. He then wandered Europe, Africa and Asia Minor, in the pursuit of hidden knowledge. He revised old manuscripts and wrote new ones, but had trouble finding publishers. In 1536, his Die grosse Wundartzney (The Great Surgery Book) was published and enabled him to regain fame. After his death, the movement of Paracelsianism was seized upon by many wishing to subvert the traditional Galenic physick- and thus did his therapies become more widely known and used. His motto was "alterius non sit qui suus esse potest" which means "let no man belong to another that can belong to himself". Contributions to toxicology Paracelsus, sometimes called the "father" of toxicology, wrote: "The dose makes the poison." (A popular short version.) The original quote is: "All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." In other words, the specific quality of a given amount of a substance is as important to a patient as the nature of the substance in general. For example, the quality of a small dose of aspirin can be beneficial to someone, but at very high doses, the quality of this common medicine for the same person can be deadly. In some individuals, even at very low doses, the quality of aspirin may be deadly. Dose-response assesses the dose levels at which adverse effects were observed in test animals, and these dose levels are used to calculate an equal dose in humans. He wrote the major work On the Miners' Sickness and Other Diseases of Miners (1567) documenting the occupational hazards of metalworking including treatment and prevention strategies. Related | |||||||||||||||||||||
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