i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



knowledge and their ideas as comprehensible as possible for their suc- 

 cessors or contemporaries. Theirs was the spirit of service and that 

 is also the spirit of modern science. 



The work of these three chemists, however scientific its spirit and 

 method, was not such as to affect immediately the thought of the time 

 in lines outside of the industries they represented, nor to influence the 

 chemical notions of the university faculties — mainly interested in phi- 

 losophy and medicine. 



The fundamental basis of chemical theory of the middle ages — the 

 rudimentary chemical philosophy of the Greek-Arabian philosophers 

 and alchemists — was not seriously affected by the work of these pioneers. 



It is to Paracelsus that we are indebted for the impetus that was to 

 inaugurate a broader and livelier interest in chemical activity and in 

 chemical theories. Paracelsus was a man of very different type from 

 his three colleagues already mentioned. A physician by training and 

 profession, as his father was before him, he had traveled much and far — 

 from Sweden to Italy, and from France to Bohemia — as an army sur- 

 geon, student or itinerant doctor. Brought up in childhood and in 

 early manhood in mining countries, he had early become interested in 

 the chemistry of the metals and had himself worked in the laboratories 

 of the mines. He was a man of original power, restless activity, great 

 energy and a natural-born revolutionary. 



The early influence of philosophers of the fantastic neo-platonic 

 natural philosophy of the Florentine Academy and its followers, had 

 shaken his faith in the accepted Aristotelian and Galenic philosophy 

 which was the basis of medical theory and medical teaching of the time. 

 This revolt from the traditional dogmas, combined with manifestly 

 acute powers of observation and an open mind for such medical or chem- 

 ical practises or ideas as he met with in the course of his extensive expe- 

 riences among all classes of people in many lands, resulted apparently 

 in enabling him to surpass the conventionally restricted medical prac- 

 tise of his time in the successful treatment of many diseases. His repu- 

 tation as a brilliant and able physician attracted early the notice of 

 some of the noted scholars at Basel — and Paracelsus was called to that 

 city as city physician and professor in the university. In his teaching 

 he at once began opposing the conventional dogmas and the antiquated 

 practise of medicine. The history of medicine and the testimony of 

 learned critics of the period such as Erasmus, Agrippa, and Peter 

 Eamus give ample evidence that the time was ripe for a reform in medi- 

 cine. For centuries all initiative had been discouraged by the ac- 

 cepted infallibility of the traditional Greek and Arab authorities. The 

 medical practise was based on analogical reasonings, and astrology, 

 charms, incantations and exorcisms played an important part. To 

 question the foundations of the medical theory or to introduce innova- 



