i PARACELSUS 



lover of the secret arts. In that place Paracelsus obtaine(3 

 at last the fruits of his long labours and of a widespread 

 fame. 



But he was not destined to enjoy a long time the rest 

 he so richly deserved, because already, on the 24th of 

 September 1541, he died, after a short sickness (at the 

 age of forty-eight years and three days), in a small room of 

 the inn called the " White Horse," near the quay, and his 

 body was buried in the graveyard of St. Sebastian. There 

 is still a mystery in regard to his death, but the most 

 recent investigations go to confirm the statement made by 

 his contemporaries, that Paracelsus during a banquet had 

 been treacherously attacked by the hirelings of certain 

 physicians who were his enemies, and that in consequence 

 of a fall upon a rock, a fracture was produced on his 

 skull, that after a few days caused his death. A German 

 physician, S. Th. von Soemmering, examined the skull of 

 Paracelsus, which on account of its peculiar formation 

 could not easily be mistaken, and noticed a fracture going 

 through the temporal bone, which, by reason of the age 

 and frequent handling of the skull, had become enlarged 

 in size so as to be easily seen, and he believes that such 

 a fracture could only have been produced during the life- 

 time of Paracelsus, because the bones of a solid but old 

 and desiccated skull would not be likely to separate in 

 that manner. 



Certain it is that Paracelsus was not killed on the 

 spot, but that at the time of his death he was in posses- 

 sion of his mental faculties and reasoning powers, as is 

 shown by the documents containing his last will and testa- 

 ment, which were written down on the 20th of September 

 1 541, at noon, in the presence of Melchior Spaech, 

 city-judge of Hallein ; Hans Kalbssor, notary-public of 

 Salzburg ; and several other persons of prominence. 



The bones of Paracelsus were exhumed in the year 

 1572, at a time when the church was repaired, and 

 reinterred near the back side of the wall that encloses 



