PARACEL'SUS. Aborit the end of the 15th c. there lived in the small town of 3Iarien Tinsel:Ida, near Zurich in Switzerland, William Bombast von Holtenheim, a physician and chemist; he was married to the lady-superintendent of the hospital attached to the convent of Einsedeln; they had an only son, Philip Aureolus Theophrastus, born, it is thought, about 1493. The name Paracelsus, by which he is now known, is a rude ren dering into Greek and Latin of his patronymic. It seems doubtful if he ever attended any regular school, but he received from his father the rudiments of Latin and whatever else he could teach. He soon took to roaming, and even pursued his travels into Asia and Africa. How be maintained himself during his pilgrimage is unknown; probably by necromancy and quack *cures—that proclaiming lie had certain specifics, and laargainin7 for the amount he was to receive if he performed a cure. He was a diligent chemist, investigating the processes of the preparation of metals, and making experi ments as to their medicinal virtues; also to discover the philosopher's stone. As a diem ist he lived with Sigismund Fugger, one of a family celebrated for its patronage of art and science. His cures, real or pretended, became noised abroad, and he was called to prescribe for all the great men of his day. When he was thirty-three, he boasted of hav ing cured thirteen priuces, whose cases had been declared hopeless. He was then at his zenith and at the recommendation of Ecolampadius was appointed professor of physic and surgery at Basel. He commenced his academic career by publicly burning Galcn's works, exclaiming Galen did not know as much as his shoe-latchets, " Reading never made a physician, ',lie said; "countries are the leaves of nature's code of laws—patients his only books." His class-room at first was full to overflowing, but was soon deserted, and he fell into habits of excessive intemperance; indeed his secretary asserts lie was drunk every day; never undressed, and went to bed with his famous sword by his side, which he would draw, and flourish about the room. The reason of his departure from
Basel was, that a certain dignitary, suffering from gout, in his agony sent for and promised to give him 100 florins if he cured him. Paracelsus gave him three la Ma, num pills; the canon felt comfortable, and the doctor claimed his fee, but the church man refused to pay. Paracelsus took him into court, but the judge decided against the professor, who lost his temper, and abused the legal functionary in such a manner that the matter was taken up by the town council, and ended in the expulsion of Paracelsus. He recommenced his wanderings. Wherever he went he excited the regular faculty to a state of violent hatred, not wholly undeserved. At Salzburg he had given offense in the usual way, and the result was, "he was pitched out of the window at an inn by the doctor's servants, and had his neck broken by the fall." This took place in 1541.
That a man whose life was such an incoherent medley should exert an influence for centuries after his death, may well be a matter of surprise, but he and the age were fitted for each other. He struck the,weak point of the prevailing system of medicine; lie appealed to the public as to whether it were not a' false system that could only lead to failure, and lie proposed a system of his own, which, though shrouded in absurdity and obscurity, inaugurated a new era of medicine. The prominent idea of his system is, that disease does not upon an excess or deficiendy of bile, phlegm, or blood, but that it is an actual existence, a blight upon the body subject to its own laws, and to be opposed by some specific medicine. See the works of Paracelsus; also of Schulz (1831); Lessing (1839); Mook (Wilrzb. 1876); and Russell (History and Heroes of Medicine, 1861).