Paracelsus

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Paracelsus \Par`a*cel"sus\ (p[a^]r`[.a]*s[e^]l"s[u^]s), prop. n.
     Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (originally Theophrastus
     Bombastus von Hohenheim, also called Theophrastus Paracelsus
     and Theophrastus von Hohenheim). Born at Maria-Einsiedeln, in
     the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland, Dec. 17 (or 10 Nov.),
     1493: died at Salzburg, Sept. 23 (or 24), 1541. A celebrated


     German-Swiss physician, reformer of therapeutics,
     iatrochemist, and alchemist. He attended school in a small
     lead-mining district where his father, William Bombast von
     Hohenheim, was a physician and teacher of alchemy. The family
     originally came from W["u]rtemberg, where the noble family of
     Bombastus was in possession of the ancestral castle of
     Hohenheim near Stuttgart until 1409. He entered the
     University of Basel at the age of sixteen, where he adopted
     the name Paracelsus, after Celsius, a noted Roman physician.
     But he left without a degree, first going to Wurtzburg to
     study under Joannes Trithemius, Abbot of Sponheim
     (1462-1516), a famous astrologer and alchemist, who initiated
     him into the mysteries of alchemy. He then spent many years
     in travel and intercourse with distinguished scholars,
     studied and practiced medicine and surgery, and at one point
     attended the Diet of Worms. He was appointed to the office of
     city physician of Basel, which also made him a lecturer on
     medicine at Basel about 1526, where, through the publisher
     Johan Frobenius he made friends with the scholar Erasmus; and
     there he fulminated against the medical pseudo-science of his
     day, and against the blind adherence to ancient medical
     authorities such as Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna, which
     was still the prevalent philosophy of medicine in the
     sixteenth century. But soon, in 1528, he was driven from the
     city by the medical corporations, whose methods he had
     severely criticized. He found refuge with friends, and
     traveled and practiced medicine, but could not find a
     publisher willing to print his books. He preached frequently
     the need for experimentation in medicine. He is important in
     the history of medicine chiefly on account of the impetus
     which he gave to the development of pharmaceutical chemistry.
     He was also the author of a visionary and theosophic system
     of philosophy. The first collective edition of his works
     appeared at Basel in 1589-91. Among the many legends
     concerning him is that concerning his long sword, which he
     obtained while serving as barber-surgeon during the
     Neapolitan wars. It was rumored that in the hilt of the sword
     he kept a familiar or small demon; some thought he carried
     the elixer of life in the sword. He is buried in the cemetary
     of the Hospital of St. Sebastian in Salzburg. For more
     detailed information about Paracelsus, there is a special
     project, the [a
     href="http:]/www.mhiz.unizh.ch/Paracelsus.html">Zurich
     Paracelsus Project available on the Web. --Century Dict.,
     1906; --Bernard Jaffe (Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry,
     Revised Edition, 1948).
     [PJC]
  
           The apothecaries, too, were enraged against this
           iconoclast [Paracelsus]. For had he not, as official
           town physician, demanded the right to inspect their
           stocks and rule over their prescriptions which he
           denounced as "foul broths"? These apothecaries had
           grown fat on the barbarous prescriptions of the local
           doctors. "The physician's duty is to heal the sick, not
           to enrich the apothecaries," he had warned them, and
           refused to send his patients to them to have the
           prescriptions compounded. He made his own medicines
           instead, and gave them free to his patients.
           . . .
           Then they hatched a plot and before long Basel had lost
           Paracelsus, ostensibly because of the meanness of a
           wealthy citizen. Paracelsus had sued Canon Lichtenfels
           for failure to pay him one hundred guldens promised for
           a cure. The patient had offered only six guldens, and
           the fiery Paracelsus, when the court deliberately
           handed in a verdict against him, rebuked it in such
           terms that his life was in imminent danger. In the dead
           of night, he was persuaded by his friends to leave
           secretly the city where he had hurled defiance at the
           pseudo-medicos of the world.             --Bernard
                                                    Jaffe
                                                    (Crucibles:
                                                    The Story of
                                                    Chemistry,
                                                    Revised
                                                    Edition, 1948)
     [PJC]
  
           Although the theories of Paracelsus as contrasted with
           the Galeno-Arabic system indicate no advance, inasmuch
           as they ignore entirely the study of anatomy, still his
           reputation as a reformer of therapeutics is justified
           in that he broke new paths in the science. He may be
           taken as the founder of modern materia medica, and
           pioneer of scientific chemistry, since before his time
           medical science received no assistance from alchemy. To
           Paracelsus is due the use of mercury for syphilis as
           well as a number of other metallic remedies, probably a
           result of his studies in Schwaz, and partly his
           acquaintance with the quicksilver works in Idria.
                                                    --Catholic
                                                    Encyclopedia,
                                                    1911
     [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Paracelsus
       n : Swiss physician who introduced treatments of particular
           illnesses based on his observation and experience; he saw
           illness as having an external cause (rather than an
           imbalance of humors) and replaced traditional remedies
           with chemical remedies (1493-1541) [syn: {Philippus
           Aureolus Paracelsus}, {Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus
           Bombastus von Hohenheim}]