ABSTRACT
Ole Worm was first and foremost a physician. He worked as a physician in both Paris and London before he returned to Denmark in 1613 to take up his first professorship at the University of Copenhagen. Here he quickly established a thriving medical practice. Gradually he became the physician of choice to some of the most prominent noble families in the country.
From the 1630s he began to serve the royal household, offering medical advice and treatment. A few years later Worm helped provide medical treatment for the ailing Elected-Prince Christian. From 1644 he also became involved in treating Christian IV, who died in his arms on 28 February 1648.
Despite his interests in Paracelsianism and iatrochemistry Ole Worm was, in many ways, a Galenic physician who adhered to the humoral system. His patients’ lifestyles and diets were important starting points for him, as were bloodletting and evacuations of other bodily fluids. He was also influenced by revived Hippocratic ideas about the roots of disease to be found both within and without the human body and he was a firm believer in astrological medicine.
