81 Facts About Paracelsus

Paracelsus, born Theophrastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.

Paracelsus was a pioneer in several aspects of the "medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom.

Paracelsus had a substantial influence as a prophet or diviner, his "Prognostications" being studied by Rosicrucians in the 1600s.

Paracelsus was born in Egg an der Sihl, a village close to the Etzel Pass in Einsiedeln, Schwyz.

Paracelsus was born in a house next to a bridge across the Sihl river.

Paracelsus' mother was probably a native of the Einsiedeln region and a bonds-woman of Einsiedeln Abbey, who before her marriage worked as superintendent in the abbey's hospital.

Paracelsus was educated by his father in botany, medicine, mineralogy, mining, and natural philosophy.

Paracelsus received a profound humanistic and theological education from local clerics and the convent school of St Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal.

However, there is no record of Trithemius spending much time at Einsiedeln, nor of Paracelsus visiting Sponheim or Wurzburg before Trithemius's death in 1516.

Paracelsus gained his medical doctorate from the University of Ferrara in 1515 or 1516.

Paracelsus's wanderings led him from Italy, France, to Spain, Portugal, to England, Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Croatia, to Rhodes, Constantinople, and possibly even Egypt.

In 1527, Paracelsus was a licensed physician in Basel with the privilege of lecturing at the University of Basel.

Basel at the time was a centre of Renaissance humanism, and Paracelsus here came into contact with Erasmus of Rotterdam, Wolfgang Lachner, and Johannes Oekolampad.

Paracelsus stated that he wanted his lectures to be available to everyone.

Paracelsus published harsh criticism of the Basel physicians and apothecaries, creating political turmoil to the point of his life being threatened.

Paracelsus was prone to many outbursts of abusive language, abhorred untested theory, and ridiculed anybody who placed more importance on titles than practice.

Paracelsus's reputation went before him, and the medical professionals excluded him from practising.

The name Paracelsus is first attested in this year, used as a pseudonym for the publication of a Practica of political-astrological character in Nuremberg.

In Beratzhausen, Paracelsus prepared Paragranum, his main work on medical philosophy, completed 1530.

Paracelsus moved on to Innsbruck, where he was barred from practising.

Paracelsus passed Sterzing in 1534, moving on to Meran, Veltlin, and St Moritz, which he praised for its healing springs.

Paracelsus visited Pfafers Abbey, dedicating a separate pamphlet to its baths.

Paracelsus finally managed to publish his Die grosse Wundartznei, printed in Ulm, Augsburg, and Frankfurt in this year.

Paracelsus's remains were relocated inside St Sebastian's church in 1752.

Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease.

Paracelsus largely rejected the philosophies of Aristotle and Galen, as well as the theory of humours.

Paracelsus often viewed fire as the Firmament that sat between air and water in the heavens.

Paracelsus often uses an egg to help describe the elements.

Paracelsus believed that science and religion were inseparable, and scientific discoveries were direct messages from God.

Paracelsus believed that the virtues that make up natural objects are not natural, but supernatural, and existed in God before the creation of the universe.

Paracelsus saw medicine as more than just a perfunctory practice.

Paracelsus encouraged physicians to practice self-improvement and humility along with studying philosophy to gain new experiences.

Paracelsus was one of the first medical professors to recognize that physicians required a solid academic knowledge in the natural sciences, especially chemistry.

Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine.

From his study of the elements, Paracelsus adopted the idea of tripartite alternatives to explain the nature of medicines, which he thought to be composed of the : a combustible element, a fluid and changeable element, and a solid, permanent element.

Paracelsus believed that the principles sulphur, mercury, and salt contained the poisons contributing to all diseases.

Paracelsus saw each disease as having three separate cures depending on how it was afflicted, either being caused by the poisoning of sulphur, mercury, or salt.

Paracelsus drew the importance of sulphur, salt, and mercury from medieval alchemy, where they all occupied a prominent place.

Paracelsus demonstrated his theory by burning a piece of wood.

Paracelsus believed that mercury, sulphur, and salt provided a good explanation for the nature of medicine because each of these properties existed in many physical forms.

Paracelsus was probably the first to give the element zinc its modern name, in about 1526, likely based on the sharp pointed appearance of its crystals after smelting.

Paracelsus invented chemical therapy, chemical urinalysis, and suggested a biochemical theory of digestion.

Paracelsus used chemistry and chemical analogies in his teachings to medical students and to the medical establishment, many of whom found them objectionable.

Paracelsus in the beginning of the sixteenth century had unknowingly observed hydrogen as he noted that in reaction when acids attack metals, gas was a by-product.

Paracelsus took a different approach 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.

Paracelsus mobilized the microcosm-macrocosm theory to demonstrate the analogy between the aspirations to salvation and health.

Paracelsus believed that true anatomy could only be understood once the nourishment for each part of the body was discovered.

Paracelsus believed that one must therefore know the influence of the stars on these particular body parts.

Paracelsus claimed the complete opposite of Galen, in that like cures like.

Paracelsus viewed the universe as one coherent organism that is pervaded by a uniting life giving spirit, and this in its entirety, humans included, was 'God'.

Paracelsus's beliefs put him at odds with the Catholic Church, for which there necessarily had to be a difference between the creator and the created.

Paracelsus is frequently credited with reintroducing opium to Western Europe during the German Renaissance.

Paracelsus extolled the benefits of opium, and of a pill he called laudanum, which has frequently been asserted by others to have been an opium tincture.

Paracelsus did not leave a complete recipe, and the known ingredients differ considerably from 17th-century laudanum.

Paracelsus invented, or at least named a sort of liniment, opodeldoc, a mixture of soap in alcohol, to which camphor and sometimes a number of herbal essences, most notably wormwood, were added.

Paracelsus advocated for cleanliness and protection of wounds, as well as the regulation of diet.

Contrarily, Paracelsus believed in three humors: salt, sulphur, and mercury ; he defined disease as a separation of one humor from the other two.

Paracelsus believed that body organs functioned alchemically, that is, they separated pure from impure.

The dominant medical treatments in Paracelsus's time were specific diets to help in the "cleansing of the putrefied juices" combined with purging and bloodletting to restore the balance of the four humours.

Paracelsus supplemented and challenged this view with his beliefs that illness was the result of the body being attacked by outside agents.

Paracelsus objected to excessive bloodletting, saying that the process disturbed the harmony of the system, and that blood could not be purified by lessening its quantity.

Paracelsus believed that fasting helped enable the body to heal itself.

Paracelsus gave birth to clinical diagnosis and the administration of highly specific medicines.

Paracelsus prescribed black hellebore to alleviate certain forms of arteriosclerosis.

Since effective medicines for serious infectious diseases weren't invented before the 19th century, Paracelsus came up with many prescriptions and concoctions on his own.

Paracelsus extended his interest in chemistry and biology to what is considered toxicology.

Paracelsus's belief that diseases locate in a specific organ was extended to inclusion of target organ toxicity; that is, there is a specific site in the body where a chemical will exert its greatest effect.

Paracelsus encouraged using experimental animals to study both beneficial and toxic chemical effects.

Paracelsus was one of the first scientists to introduce chemistry to medicine.

Paracelsus advocated the use of inorganic salts, minerals, and metals for medicinal purposes.

Paracelsus held the belief that organs in the body operated on the basis of separating pure substances from impure ones.

Paracelsus did not support Hippocrate's theory of the four humours.

Paracelsus proposed that the state of a person's psyche could cure and cause disease.

Paracelsus stated that whether or not a person could succeed in their craft depended on their character.

When it came to mental illness, Paracelsus stressed the importance of sleep and sedation as he believed sedation could catalyse healing and cure mental illness.

Posthumous portraits of Paracelsus, made for publications of his books during the second half of the 16th century, often show him in the same pose, holding his sword by its pommel.

Paracelsus was especially venerated by German Rosicrucians, who regarded him as a prophet, and developed a field of systematic study of his writings, which is sometimes called "Paracelsianism", or more rarely "Paracelsism".

Paracelsus has been cited as one of the inspirations for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

The German drama film Paracelsus was made in 1943, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.

Paracelsus is the main character of Jorge Luis Borges's short story "La rosa de Paracelso".

The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets and Sacraments, borrowing from Jorge Luis Borges, is a novel by William Leonard Pickard.