Paracelsus was born in Einsiedeln (present day Switzerland) in 1493 or 1494. He is known primarily by the names Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus, and Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. He was “not given to modesty” as demonstrated by his choice of pseudonym (Binswanger & Smith 1163). His pseudonym implies that he goes beyond or is over Celsus a first-century Roman encyclopedist.
Paracelsus was the son of Wilhelm Bombast de Riett, a member of the Bombast family of Swabia (Harley). He was an only child and grew up in Austria. Paracelsus gained his early education from his father. His father was the doctor in Villach from 1502-1534. His father taught him “the fledgling art of chemistry, educated him in minerology, metallurgy, botany and adepta philosophia” (Pirog 219). He also studied alchemy with Johannes Tritheminus, the abbot of Sponheim. There is no evidence that he married or had children.
He may have studied for a bachelor's degree at the University of Vienna between 1509 and 1511. Pirog (220) and Wikipedia state that he received a medical degree from the University of Vienna in 1510, while Harley states there is no evidence that he received a degree at Vienna. From 1513 to 1516, he traveled and studied in Italy, notably at Ferrara, where he might have earned a doctorate (Pirog 220 and Wikipedia). However, the University of Ferrara records were lost and there is no evidence to support this claim.
Paracelsus traveled throughout Europe and the near East and has been described as a restless wanderer (Jacobi lxx). According to Pirog (220) he was “dissatisfied with traditional education and stud[ied] briefly in seven German and Swiss universities.”
The writings of Galen, an early Roman physician, dominated medical practice and medical teachings in Paracelsus’ time. Avicenna, a Persian physician, and his “The Canon of Medicine” also were highly respected. “Paracelsus considered them boring and illogical” (Pirog 220). He strongly and publicly criticized Galen in his Intimato. He disagreed with the accepted theory of the four humors (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm) and treatments that were designed to restore the humoral balance by bloodletting, purging, sweating, or vomiting. He placed his own theory of the tria prima in place of the four humors. His tria prima consisted of salt, sulfur, and mercury and were secondary to the Aristotelian earth, air, fire, and water (Pirog 222). “By challenging the age-old prestige of Galen, Paracelsus put an alternative theory in the field” (McNeill 594).
Paracelsus believed that disease was not caused by an imbalance of the humors, but was a result of causes outside the body. Because diseases originated outside the body, they could be cured by introducing chemical substances. “When he pointed outside the body and insisted on the uniformity of causes and specificity of diseases, he was pointing the way to modern medicine.” (Boorstin 342)
Paracelsus believed that “there were no incurable diseases, only ignorant physicians” (Boorstin 342). He thought that physicians should seek new remedies and not rely only on those of the ancients. “Knowledge was the barrier to knowledge and the ancient classics were a revered obstacle” (Boorstin 344). He also believed that doctors should “use all the resources that God had created - mineral as well as vegetable and animal” (Boorstin 343), and not rely only on herbal remedies. In direct contravention to academic teachings, he “respected folk remedies” (Boorstin 343). He also suggested that physicians could not learn everything they needed to know at universities. It was important that “from time to time [the physician] must consult old women, gypsies, magicians, wayfarers, and all manner of peasant folk and random people, and learn from them.” (Jacobi 57)
He combined medicine with other areas of study including religion, alchemy, astrology, metallurgy, and minerology (Pirog 218). His methods differed from other physicians. He believed 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” (Wikipedia). He prescribed internal use of chemicals and metallic compounds as treatments. In the process, he helped to develop the sciences of chemistry and pharmacology. He was the first to use opium in the form of laudanum as a painkiller. Durant and Durant (616) describe his treatments as “rebellious medical mysticism” and his unconventional treatments contributed to his reputation as a healer.
Paracelsus embodies many of the great ideas related to medicine. He followed Hippocrates’ belief that the art of medicine “consists of three things, the disease, the patient, and the physician. The physician is the servant of the art, and the patient must combat the disease along with the physician” (Adler 117). He also believed that “the art of healing consists in imitating the health-giving and healing powers of nature itself” (Adler 117). Paracelsus believed that “Natural magic will make it possible to … cure all diseases ... and even to duplicate God’s greatest miracle - the creation of man himself” (Binswanger & Smith 1163).
Paracelsus firmly believed university learning was not sufficient and that physicians must acquire knowledge from practice and experience.
Paracelsus’ disdain for traditional medical practices was bitter and severe. He was a free-thinker and “defied the medical tenets of his time” (Funk & Wagnalls). He constantly, continuosly, and vigorously challenged traditional medical practices and physicians. As a result, he alienated his colleagues and was called arrogant, unscientific, a sorcerer, and a heretic (Pirog 222). He also “denounced the textbooks and lambasted his colleagues … for … repeating the old procedures without question” (Pirog 222). The Treasure of Treasures for Alchemists provides a single example of his scorn and disdain for his colleagues.
O, you hypocrites, who despise the truths taught you by a true physician, who is himself instructed by Nature, and is a son of God himself! Come, then, and listen, impostors who prevail only by the authority of your high positions! After my death, my disciples will burst forth and drag you to the light, and shall expose your dirty drugs. (Paracelsus the Great)
He is credited with stating that “The medical faculty is full of students who contribute nothing to its good reputation, but only harm it and make it an object of contempt” (Jacobi 64). He also touted that “So great is the ill will among physicians that each denies honour and praise to the other; they would rather harm a patient and even kill him than grant a colleague his meed of praise” (Jacobi 69). He was so critical of physicians and their treatments, “the Leipzig medical facility censured his right to publish.” (Pirog 224)
Paracelsus insisted on observational medicine based on experience and opposed the teachings of universities that relied solely on books. He vented that “The folios that are read in high colleges are not fated to live long” and “every physician must be rich in knowledge, and not only of that which is written in books” (Jacobi 50). Paracelsus ranted that “the longer the book, the less the intelligence” (Jacobi 57). His writings “continually attacked contemporary overreliance on authority of ancients; rejected teachings of universities; [and] insisted on importance of personal observations” (Debus 1306).
“His revolt against ancient medical precepts freed medical thinking, enabling it to take a more scientific course” (Funk & Wagnalls). He dared physicians to match the success of folk medicine and dared them to consider what they see, not just what is written in books (Boorstin 344). Paracelsus believed the best education was gained through direct observation and based his own work on his own observations (Hartmann 12). He “emphasized chemically prepared medicines in contrast to herbal remedies of past” (Debus 1306). According to Jacobi (lxii) “Paracelsus strove to effect a complete transformation of medical theory and practice.” He studied nature and natural processes to gain knowledge and firmly believed that “it is nature that teaches the physician. … The physician must start from nature, with an open mind.” (Jacobi 50)
He has been described as vitriolic, angry, arrogant, conceited, belligerent. He was called a charlatan, a swindler, and a heretic. He has also been called a vagrant and a visionary. He was brilliant and did not tolerate mediocrity (Mystica). Hartmann (19) describes him as motivated with a “spirit of investigation” and “preeminently equipped with the consciousness of a new age.” He was shunned by the medical establishment and success eluded him during his lifetime.
Few of his writings were published during his lifetime. He so angered doctors and universities with his criticisms that they opposed his writings and prevented most of them from being published. However, “within a few decades of his death, the printing press had diffused his ideas beyond the academic reach of doctors” (Boorstin 341). The first complete collection of his writings appeared 50 years after his death (Jacobi lxx). Hartmann (17) reports that more than 200 separate publications of his work appeared between 1542 and 1845.
His teachings were derived from his own observations and experience. Many of his teachings are common knowledge today. He taught that diseases were caused by:
- Harmful substances, poor habits, and addictions
- Interaction of foods and medications
- Unfavorable environments
- Childhood stress or heredity
- Stress, and
- Diet (Pirog 226-227).
He was a Catholic and “a devout student of the bible.” “He attributed his cures and his magic to God” (Pirog 230). He successfully developed cures where his contemporaries had failed. He believed that “like cures like” which opposed Galen’s principles of opposing cures (i.e. wet cures dry or hot cures cold). His cure rate far exceeded that of learned physicians. His own experiences and observations, along with his belief that physicians should treat not just the disease, but the individual, led to his success.
In 1522, he was employed as a military surgeon for the Venetian armies in Sweden and Denmark. During this time, he developed interest in aseptic methods of treatments. He also deviated from the normal cauterizing of wounds that led to gangrene and amputations. Instead, he left wounds open to the air and allowed them to drain freely. He believed that “wounds would heal themselves if allowed to drain and [were] prevented from becoming infected” (Wikipedia and Mystica). These revolutionary treatments resulted in fewer deaths related to shock.
In 1526 or 1527, he was summoned to Basel. While in Basel, “he saved the life of humanist publisher Johannes Froben and saved his leg from amputation. He cured the gout of scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam” (Pirog 221). With the help of Froben and Erasmus he was appointed town physician and appointed professor at the Basel University medical school.
While in Basel, he angered the Doctors of Physic because “he refused to take the Hippocratic oath and was not a certified doctor of medicine” (Boorstin 340). He taught in German or Swiss rather than the expected Latin, which violated the Hippocratic oath. Paracelsus stated “Medicine should be taught so cleanly and clearly in the language of the homeland that the German should understand the Arab, and the Greek the German” (Jacobi 61-63). He “invited barbers and ordinary folk to attend” lectures (Pirog 221), another major faux pas.
He further angered the physicians and became known as the medical Martin Luther after burning the Canon of Avicenna and books on Galen in a student bonfire on St. John’s Day.
He was forced to leave Basel after the death of Froben in 1528 and losing a lawsuit over a disputed fee. From Basel, he traveled to Nuremburg, St. Gall, Appenzell, and Vienna. In 1536, after publishing his Great Surgery book, “he became the personal physician of Archbishop Duke Ernesy of Bavaria.” (Pirog 225)
He returned to Villach in 1538, but was forced to leave. He then moved onto Salzburg, where he died in September 1541 just three days after dictating his will. Rumors indicate that he may have died from poisoning, being tossed off a cliff, falling down some stairs while drunk, or from injuries related to a tavern brawl.
He was buried at the almshouse of St. Sebastian. His epitaph states “Here is buried Philippus Theophrastus, distinguished Doctor of Medicine, who with wonderful art cured dire wounds, leprosy, gout, dropsy, and other contagious disease of the body, and wished his goods to be distributed to the poor.” (Boorstin 341)
He had an enormous influence on medicine and chemistry long after his death. During his lifetime, chemistry as a science did not exist. The study of minerals and metals was generally confined to alchemy and the search for the Philosopher’s Stone. He helped pioneer chemistry as a science. He made significant contributions to diagnosing diseases and their chemical treatments. His studies and work laid the foundation for chemical physiology (Mystica). His theory on poisons is an essential tenet of toxicology (Binswanger & Smith 1163)
His experiences working in iron smeltors and in the Fugger mines led to his discovery of occupational diseases. He observed miner’s working conditions and experimented with remedies specific to their ailments. He explained that miner’s sickness was a disease of the lungs, which came from the minerals they were breathing. In his “On the Miner’s Sickness and other Miner’s Diseases, he distinguished between acute and chronic poisoning and noted different disorders caused by different metals. In a section on mercury poisoning, he accurately described its symptoms. His treatment for mercury poisoning included creating ulcers in the skin so that mercury could escape and therapeutic baths (a treatment still used). (Boorstin 344)
According to Pirog (223-224) Paracelsus discovered many medical innovations such as:
- Understanding occupational diseases (i.e. “miners disease”)
- Advocating humane treatment for patients
- Introducing baths, light, and fresh air into sick rooms
- Using mercury or mercury salts to treat syphilis, gout, leprosy, and ulcers
- Treating patients as individuals and recognizing their differing needs, and
- Advocating asepsis to prevent infection.
Posthumously, he has been recognized as the father of modern medicine because of his work related to diagnosing disease, prescribing remedies, and questioning the medical beliefs and practices of his time. One of his major contributions to medicine was his adaptation of drugs and minerals for internal use. Another major contribution was the foundation of toxicology. Paracelsus is credited with recognizing that dosages determine whether a substance is poisonous. He was also the first physician to write medical information for the lay public (Pirog 225).