136 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



veneni, naturale, spirifuale, deale. What these different ''ens'' really are one 

 never gets to know; they are apparently mystical powers which produce 

 diseases and which have different origins. Ens astrale proceeds from the stars, 

 which have life and can poison the atmosphere, precisely as a person in an 

 unventilated room pollutes the air in it with his breath. Ens veneni is a cause 

 of sickness originating in the digestion; each living being has, in fact, his 

 given food, which is made by that being partly into sustenance for the body 

 and partly into a poison, which is expelled through the excretive organs; 

 besides the true excreta, which are the specific poison of the body, quicksilver 

 is excreted through perspiration, sulphur through the nose, and arsenic 

 through the ears — the yellow colour of the cerumen in the ear probably 

 reminded Paracelsus of certain arsenic associations. Thus the ox consumes 

 grass in its own way and man the flesh of the ox in his. Every being has in its 

 body an "alchemist," who directs the work; if he gets out of order, the body 

 becomes sick. In another treatise he is named Archeus, and is apparently to 

 be regarded as a spiritual being, though no exact description of him is given. 

 Paracelsus describes in greater detail the third cause of sickness, ens naturale, 

 and here he expounds his real theory of life and the universe. The human 

 body is a microcosm, possessing elements corresponding to all the phe- 

 nomena of the exterior world, particularly to the heavenly bodies; thus the 

 liver corresponds to Jupiter, the gall-bladder to Mars; the heart is the sun, 

 the brain the moon, the spleen is Saturn, the lungs Mercury, and the kidneys 

 Venus. All these organs perform planetary movements in the body, and if 

 they come into an unfavourable position, disease arises. On the other hand, 

 they are all independent of food and therefore also of the poisons derived 

 from it. Moreover, there are included in the body the four elements, as well 

 as the basic substances of the four temperaments, which are like the gustatory 

 impressions, sour, sweet, salt, and bitter. All these likewise circulate and give 

 rise to disease. In regard to ens spirifuale Paracelsus emphasizes the difference 

 between soul and spirit: the soul is a work of God, but the spirit is created 

 by the human will and by means of it man can influence his fellow men. Thus 

 disease can be occasioned by men's hatred; if an enemy makes an image of 

 wax and maltreats a part of it, his action induces suffering in the correspond- 

 ing part of the person he desires to persecute — a method to which witches 

 are particularly partial. Ens deale, finally, is the divine will itself, which gives 

 sickness and health as may seem good to it; against the divine will medicines 

 are of no avail, but only piety and prayers. 



Paracelsus' s influence 

 In other writings Paracelsus expounds his theory of the connexion in nature 

 in different directions; one describes the doctrine of the "signatures" in plants 

 and their connexion with diseases, as, for instance, that Hypericum, owing 

 to its perforated leaves, cures wounds from stabs; the peony, owing to its 



