ABSTRACT
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, born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus
von Hohenheim (1493-1541)
Paracelsus was born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, and died in
Salzburg, Austria. He studied medicine in Basel and received his
doctorate from the University of Ferrara, Italy. He led an eventful life
that took him to Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands,
Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. Paracelsus pioneered the use
of chemicals and minerals in medicine. He used the name “zink” for
the element zinc in about 1526 on the basis of the sharp pointed
appearance of its crystals after smelting and the old German word
zinke for pointed. As a contemporary of Copernicus and Leonardo da Vinci, 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.
As a physician and medical chemist at the time, he also sharply
criticized apothecary practices that did not pay proper attention
to dosage. He coined the phrase “Dosis facit venenum” or “The
dose makes the poison.” Paracelsus had many controversies with
his contemporaries, not only because he was ahead of his time, but
also because he had a tendency to be “bombastic” and sometimes
excessively arrogant. Here is an example: “Let me tell you this: every
little hair on my neck knowsmore than you and all your scribes, and
my shoe buckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna,
and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges.”154
