In memory of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, aka Paracelsus, Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist, founder of the discipline of Toxicology, (for which he established the foundational principle The dose makes the poison) known as a revolutionary for insisting upon using observations of nature, rather than looking to ancient texts, in open and radical defiance of medical practice of his day. His personality was stubborn and independent. He grew progressively more frustrated and bitter as he became more embattled as a reformer. Paracelsus, meaning next to (or beyond) Celsus, (in his status as physician) refers to the Roman encyclopedist Aulus Cornelius Celsus from the 1st century, known for his tract on medicine. Paracelsus most important legacy is likely his critique of the scholastic methods in medicine, science and theology. Although these faculties did not exist separate from each other during his time, his attitudes towards the uncritical copy of the teachings of the old Fathers of Medicine, such as Avicenna and Averroes, without categorically denying their obvious merits, was his first and foremost achievement for independent and empirical approaches to research and teaching. Much of his theoretical work does not withstand modern scientific thought, but his insights laid the foundation for a more dynamic approach in the medical sciences. Among his more creditable accomplishments in the modern view, 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. It is said that Paracelsus was also responsible for the creation of laudanum, an opium tincture very common until the 19th century, and may have synthesized morphine or even heroin! As a physician and medical chemist at the time, he also sharply criticised apothecary practices that were often not applied in a dosage correct manner. Modern psychology often also credits him for being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological illness. Paracelsus gained a reputation for being arrogant, and soon garnered the anger of other physicians in Europe. Some even claim he was a habitual drinker. He held the chair of medicine at the University of Basel and city physician for less than a year. He angered his colleagues by lecturing in German instead of Latin in order to make medical knowledge more accessible to the common people. He attacked conventional academic teachings and publicly burned medical textbooks, denouncing some of his predecessors as quacks and liars. Paracelsus contributions to medicine can be seen in the context of the birth of Lutheranism, although he remained a Catholic and never officially assigned to the reformatory changes taking place during his time. He was a contemporary of Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther, and during his life he was compared with Luther partly because his ideas were different from the mainstream and partly because of openly defiant acts against the existing authorities in medicine, such as his public burning of ancient books. This act struck people as similar to Luthers defiance against the Church. Paracelsus rejected that comparison. Famously Paracelsus said, I leave it to Luther to defend what he says and I will be responsible for what I say. That which you wish to Luther, you wish also to me: You wish us both in the fire. Paracelsus was one of the first medical professors to recognize that physicians required a solid academic knowledge in the natural sciences, especially chemistry. Furthermore, he allowed for the access of medical academic work to learned people. Surgeons for example often were not academically trained and ranked with the barbers and butchers in the same guild. Despite advocating academic training for doctors, Paracelsus largely rejected the philosophies of Aristotle and Galen, as well as the theory of humors. Perhaps to hos early experiences as apothecary at a mine, he pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine. His hermetical views was the traditional one that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man (microcosm) and Nature (macrocosm), but 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. One of his most overlooked achievements was the systematic study of minerals and the curative powers of alpine mineral springs. His countless wanderings also brought him deep into many areas of the Alps, where such therapies were already practised on a less common scale than today. He summarised 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. Paracelsus is also a folk legend, and bizarre tales about his life circulated Central Europe for centuries. In the minds of many, he became a wonder-healer and spiritual protector of health. His aid to villages during the plague in the 16th century was for many an act of heroism, his works and achievements therefore both often abused and falsely copied. His motto was Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest which means Let no man belong to another who can belong to himself. Paracelsus viewed the universe as one coherent organism pervaded by a uniting life giving spirit, and this in its entirety, Man included, was God. His views put him at odds with the Church, for which there necessarily had to be a difference between the Creator and the created. Science again leads to Pantheism, eh! youtube/watch?v=sKldDE-KAwI
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 01:22:48 +0000
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