Fresidenfs Address. 11 



and became very fat. Observing this good effect, he decided, 

 unfortunately, to extend the experiment so far as to try the 

 effect of the metal on some of his brother monks. The anti- 

 mony, however, had not the same effect on them as it had on 

 the pigs, as they — instead of growing more sleek — all sickened 

 and died. So, said Valentine, " though good for pigs 'tis 

 bad for monks : " hence the name antimony, " adverse to 

 monks.'* 



In his otherwise, in great part, useless researches after the 

 philosopher's stone, Valentine did good service to early 

 medical science by investigating and describing, with con- 

 siderable accuracy, the medicinal value of many of the 

 compounds with which he w^as acquainted. One great fault 

 Valentine possessed, for which perhaps, however, as it was 

 the custom of the time with men of his calling, we must not 

 blame him too much, was his absurdly operose and obscure 

 style of writing, and his extensive employment of symbolical 

 designs. 



It is supposed that about the time in which Valentine 

 lived, medical chemistry, if it was not actually founded, 

 began, at all events, decidedly to take root. Hitherto men 

 had apparently in their researches in this direction mainly 

 devoted their time and their energies to the attempt to dis- 

 cover the elixir vitce, which, as we all know, was supposed to 

 be a panacea for every ill. This search, however, which had 

 proved fruitless in many other instances, in Valentine's case 

 led to the discovery of many potent medicines. 



Paracelsus, who was born in 1493, about a century later 

 than Valentine, may almost in strict justice be called the 

 father of medical chemistry. Like Valentine, Paracelsus 

 held the opinion that matter was composed of three con- 

 stituents ; he, however, went a step farther than Valentine 

 did, and did not confine this theory to inorganic substances, 

 as had been done previously, but held that organic sub- 

 stances were likewise composed of three kinds of matter; 

 and on this basis he explained the nature of disease. 

 As long, he said, as the three components of the body are 

 present in their true and proper proportions, health will con- 

 tinue ; but if these due proportions are disturbed, then disease 



