Paracelsus

Paracelsus (born November 11 or December 17, 1493, Einsiedeln, Switzerland—died September 24, 1541, Salzburg, Archbishopric of Salzburg [now in Austria]) was a German-Swiss physician and alchemist who established the role of chemistry in medicine.[1] Born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, he adopted the name "para-Celsus" (meaning above or beyond Celsus) around 1516, reflecting his belief that he surpassed Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a renowned 1st-century Roman medical writer.[1]

Early Life and Education

Paracelsus was the only son of an impoverished German doctor and chemist. His mother died when he was very young, and shortly thereafter his father moved to Villach in southern Austria.[1] There Paracelsus attended the Bergschule, founded by the wealthy Fugger family of merchant bankers of Augsburg, where his father taught chemical theory and practice. Youngsters were trained at the Bergschule as overseers and analysts for mining operations in gold, tin, and mercury, as well as in iron, alum, and copper-sulfate ores.[1]

The young Paracelsus learned of metals that "grow" in the earth, watched the transformations of metallic constituents in smelting vats, and perhaps wondered about the transmutation of lead into gold—a conversion believed to be possible by the alchemists of the time. Those experiences gave Paracelsus insight into metallurgy and chemistry, which likely laid the foundations of his later remarkable discoveries in the field of chemotherapy.[1]

In 1507 Paracelsus joined the many wandering youths who traveled throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages, seeking famous teachers at one university after another. Paracelsus is said to have attended the Universities of Basel, Tübingen, Vienna, Wittenberg, Leipzig, Heidelberg, and Cologne during the next five years but was disappointed with them all. He wrote later that he wondered how "the high colleges managed to produce so many high asses," a typical Paracelsian jibe.[1]

Travels and Medical Practice

Although it was customary in that era for students to visit only the most important centres of learning, Paracelsus travelled all over Europe. He spoke German as well as Latin and ancient Greek. According to his own writings, he visited Spain, Portugal, Catalonia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Prussia, Russia, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Croatia, Dalmatia, France, Sicily (Italy), Constantinople (Turkey), Crete (Greece), Rhodes (Greece) and Alexandria (Egypt). In all these places, he investigated the art of healing and observed other physicians, surgeons, monks, alchemists, the elderly and the homeless.[6]

He settled in Strasbourg after several years of wandering—during which he claimed to have endured captivity by Tatars in Moscow, among other adventures—and began receiving patients. His popularity as a physician grew quickly, and he was invited to take up the post of city physician in Basel around 1527.[2]

Revolutionary Medical Theories

This position also came with the rank of professor at Basel's medical college, then a bastion of traditional Galenic humoral theory, which Paracelsus rejected and agitated against. In his view the university's stubborn adherence to humoral theory's ancient pedigree, its insistence on the core practices of purging and bloodletting—thought to restore the equilibrium—was misguided.[2]

These works expounded on the body's "internal" alchemist—that is, its capacity for separating out what was useful and what was harmful from what it consumed—and on his belief that diseases originate from contact with materials or contagions outside the body rather than from internal imbalances.[2]

Building on his knowledge of alchemy, Paracelsus theorized the constitution of matter based on three elements (tria prima): sulphur (for its combustibility), salt (for its stability) and mercury (for its liquidity). He wrote, "For all that fumes and disappears in vapors is mercury; all that burns and is consumed is sulphur; all that is ashes is also salt."[13]

Chemical Medicine and Toxicology

His chemical remedies, including those containing mercury, sulfur, iron, and copper sulfate, united medicine with chemistry and contributed substantially to the rise of modern medicine.[1] Paracelsus is often called the "father of toxicology". He was the first to use minerals and other chemicals in medicine, using substances such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and antimony, thus combining medicine and chemistry. Many of these were viewed as poisons, but Paracelsus thought the only difference between a poison and a remedy was the dosage.[11]

His famous principle stated: "In all things there is a poison, and there is nothing without a poison. It depends only upon the dose whether a poison is poison or not..."[3] His suggested remedies often included novel or familiar-but-transformed substances, such as his creation of a new tincture of opium for pain, a compound he named laudanum. His belief in treating "like with like" sometimes meant embracing materials considered harmful: to fight the ravages of leprosy he promoted an "oil of antimony," a known poison also used in metal alloys.[2]

Treatment of Syphilis

In long ago 1530 Paracelsus wrote a clinical description of syphilis, in which he claimed that the disease could be successfully treated with orally, carefully measured doses of mercury compounds.[14] His treatment of syphilis with internal doses of mercury compounds foreshadowed therapy with the drug Salvarsan, which became the standard treatment for syphilis in the early 1900's, and he was the first to make tincture of opium (laudanum).[15]

Controversial Career

Paracelsus overthrew convention by publicly burning the books of Ibn Sina and Galen. He also invited ordinary citizens to his lectures, which he gave wearing an alchemist's leather apron rather than an academic gown. His new methods were very controversial, and in 1538 he was exiled from Basel.[5]

He was considered arrogant and surely lacked tact. "The ignorant physicians," he wrote, "are the servants of hell sent to torment the sick." He was run out of Basel after he famously threw a copy of Avicenna's Canon of medicine into a St. John's day bonfire and worse, his patient, famed publisher Johanannes Frobenius, died.[3]

Major Works and Writings

He published Der grossen Wundartzney (Great Surgery Book) in 1536 and a clinical description of syphilis in 1530.[1] Paracelsus wrote many books about medicine, including what is surely the first monograph on diseases of miners. Most of his work was not published until after his death, and his influence increased posthumously.[3]

His writings included treatises on the details of alchemy, what may have been the first textbook on biochemistry, sympathetic analyses of mental illness, a clinical description of syphilis, and his Astronomia magna — his hitchhiker's guide to life, the universe, and everything.[22]

Death and Legacy

Paracelsus died on September 24, 1541, aged 47. The actual cause of his death remains unknown.[18] His colossal conceit, violent temper, and utter contempt for his fellow physicians made many enemies and won him few converts in his day, but after his death, his disciples, who came to be known as Paracelsians, spread his ideas throughout Europe and gained wide acceptance. Although unable to influence his own generation, Paracelsus had a significant impact on the next generation and on the future of medicine.[15]

Paracelsus has been hailed as the founder of biochemistry. He also made major contributions to the development of modern chemistry and made revolutionary changes in Renaissance medical theory and practice.[19] Although unable to influence his own generation, Paracelsus had a significant impact on the next generation and on the future of medicine. His acceptance of the folk belief that "what makes a man ill also cures him," or "like cures like," persists into the twenty-first century in homeopathic medicine. He bridged the gap between medicine and surgery, advocating conservative treatment of wounds and chronic ulcers. His rejection of traditional medicine reduced the hold of Galenic medicine and opened the way to inquiry and experimentation in medicine. His understanding of the importance of chemistry in nature and medicine advanced the application of chemistry in therapeutics.[15]

Influence on Modern Medicine

While his theories of targeted cures helped shape the emergence of the modern pharmaceutical industry and his serious explorations of poisons made invaluable contributions to toxicology, Paracelsus's embrace of magic was as sincere and as deeply embedded as any other aspect of his practice.[2] Paracelsus was the first to connect goitre with minerals, especially lead, in drinking water. He prepared and used new chemical remedies, including those containing mercury, sulfur, iron, and copper sulfate, thus uniting medicine with chemistry, as the first London Pharmacopoeia, in 1618, indicates.[1]

Medical historians view Paracelsus as a forerunner of toxicology and experimental pharmacology, despite the hermetic language of his works. Scholars from Walter Pagel to Allen Debus emphasize his role in shifting from humoral Galenism to chemical medicine grounded in specific remedies and dosage.[21]