October ib, 1894J 



NA TURE 



599 



chemistry, pharmacy, and medical chemistry. The 

 essential doctrines inculcated by the cosmogonist of 

 Hohenheim are put into the language of modern mys- 

 ticism by Hartmann, in his " Life of Philippus Theo- 

 phrastus, Bombast of Hohenheim, known by the name of 

 Paracelsus ; and the substance of his teachings," pub- 

 lished in 1S87. A collection of the works of Paracelsus 

 was made by Dr. E. Schubert ; that author, and also 

 Dr. Karl Sudhoff, have thrown much light on the history 

 of Paracelsus. A pamphlet entitled " Theophrastus 

 Paracelsus, Eine Kritische Studie," was published by 

 F. Mook in 1876; and a criticism of this critique, by 

 Prof Ferguson, of Glasgow University, appeared in 

 1S77 with the title " Bibliographia Paracelsica." 



The difficulty of estimating justly the influence of 

 Theophrastus von Hohenheim on his age is enhanced 

 by the fact that the greater part of the writings that go 

 under his name was compiled after his death by his 

 followers, from fragmentary manuscripts left by their 

 master. Hartmann gives a list of the works attributed 

 to Paracelsus in the edition published by II user, at the 

 request of the Prince Archbishop of Cologne, in the 

 years 15S9-90. The list contains the names of fifty 

 works on medicine, seven on alchemy, nine on ..atural 

 history and philosophy, twenty-six on magic, and 

 fourteen on various other subjects. In 1893, Prof. 

 Ferguson printed (privately) a very complete anno- 

 tated catalogue of the different editions of the works 

 of Paracelsus. 



The preparation of an inflammable gas by the action 

 of oil of vitriol on iron filings is usually attributed to 

 Paracelsus. He also examined the differences between 

 metals and substances that are like metals, and he 

 asserted ductility to be the characteristic property of all 

 true metals. The differences between the vitriols and 

 the alums were referred by Paracelsus to the presence in 

 the former of metals, and in the latter of earths. He 

 introduced into medicine many new and potent drugs, 

 notably laudanum ; and he constantly sought to deter- 

 mine the medicinal effects of the chemical substances 

 that he worked with. Paracelsus was the first to make 

 medicinal use of preparations of mercury, lead, and iron. 

 He held that substances that were poisonous when 

 administered in quantity might have healing properties 

 when given in smaller doses and under proper conditions. 

 In his endeavour to obtain definite substances, freed from 

 admixture with extraneous and unnecessary, or perhaps 

 hurtful, materials, he made tinctures and essences of 

 various plants, and used these in place of the sweetened 

 decoctions of the entire plants that were generally 

 employed at that time. Paracelsus asserted that the aim 

 of chemistry should be not to make gold, but to produce 

 healing medicines. Medicine was for him a branch of 

 chemistry. He insisted that apothecaries ought to be 

 acquainted with the chemical characters of the drugs they 

 compounded, and that only by a knowledge of chemical 

 reactions could the physician restore to the perturbed 

 bodies of his patients that chemical equilibrium which is 

 health. 



It is evident that a man who held and practised such 

 views as these could not pay much respect to the 

 physicians of his own time, whose highest ideal was to do 

 what Galen had done, and to administer this or that 

 drug because .Avicenna laid it down, on such or such a 

 |iage, that the drug ought to be administered. What 

 the authorities of the schools were to his contemporaries, 

 n.iture was to Paracelsus: the supreme court of appeal. 

 .Surrounded by prejudices, separated from nature by the 

 thick veils that medi.cval philosophy had drawn over 

 men's eyes, bound by the formulas of his age— as we are 

 bound by those of our age — Paracelsus nevertheless knew 

 that the sun was shining on the other side of the mist, 

 and that could he and others break through thev would 



find the light. We can surely sympathise with his 

 struggle. We may perhaps even recognise the essential 

 Tightness of the daring claim of the man who felt that 

 the vision of nature could a'one give understanding: — 

 "After me, you, Avicenna, Galen, Rhasis, Montagnana, 

 and the others. You after me, not I after you. You of 

 Paris, you of Montpellier, you of Swabia, of .Meissen, and 

 Vienna ; you who come from the countries along the 

 Danube and the Rhine ; and you, too, from the islands of 

 the Ocean. Follow me. It is not for me to follow you, 

 for mine is the monarchy." 



But while we admire the audacity of the man, and even 

 admit the force of his claim, we know that one who at- 

 tacked the citadel of nature in this mood would dash 

 himself to pieces before the outworks were carried. Yet 

 he might make a breach through which a way for others 

 should lie open, .^nd Paracelsus succeeded in this ; we 

 are entering nature's strongholds by some of the ways he 

 helped to open. With few appliances, with no accurate 

 knowledge, with no help from the work of others, without 

 polished and sharpened weapons, and without the skill 

 that comes from long handling instruments of precision, 

 what could Paracelsus effect in his struggle to wrest her 

 secrets from nature ? Of necessity, he grew weary of the 

 task, and tried to construct a universe which should be 

 simpler than that most complex order which refused to 

 yield to his analysis. 



The struggle is so arduous, nature is so infinitely com 

 plex, men are so easily led astray, that the giants alone 

 keep to the quest, and they only go always forward to the 

 goal. The syren-songs of the miracle-men are very 

 soothing, and few escape. It is so pleasant to lie still 

 and dream ; it is so hard to get up and act. In the time 

 of Paracelsus the air was filletl with the soporific mur- 

 murings of industrious human bees. They were all busy 

 secreting the wax of philosophising, that with it they 

 might construct symmetric cells to be filled with the 

 syrup of their own wisdom. Paracelsus, too, was obliged 

 to become a wax-gatherer and a universe-maker. And a 

 very remarkable universe he produced. Tlie facts of 

 nature that he sought were found so slowly that, in his 

 impatience, he supposed the aim of science was to pro- 

 duce a completed scheme of things; and such a scheme 

 he set himself to construct. 



It would be out of place here to attempt more than the 

 briefest sketch of the outlines of the Paracelsian concep- 

 tion of the order of nature. Paracelsus was essentially of 

 the order of mystics. He would have adopted with 

 enthusiasm the words of Blake : '' 1 assert for myself that 

 I do not behold the outward creation, and that to me it 

 IS a hindrance, and not action. ' What,' it will be ex- 

 claimed, ' when the sun rises do you not see a round 

 disc of fire somewhat like a guinea.'' Oh, no I no! I 

 see an innumerable company of the heavenly host crying 

 ' Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God .Almighty. ' 1 question 

 not my corporeal eye any more than I would question a 

 window concerning a sight. I look through it, and not 

 with it." Paracelsus insisted on the unity of all things ; 

 he taught that in everything in nature there is an inner 

 and essential principle, which is itself a part of the 

 universal life. There was for him an absolute and 

 attainable knowledge ; and although he admitted that 

 much is to be learned from external nature, he taught 

 that this real knowledge must be discovered by each 

 man in himself " Each man has . . . all the wisdom and 

 power of the world in himself; he possesses one kind of 

 knowledge as much as another, and he who does not find 

 that which is in him cannot truly say that he does 

 not possess it, but only that he was not capable of 

 successfully seeking for it." Chemistry was regarded 

 by Paracelsus as a spiritual art ; an art that deals with 

 the spiritual principles of things. ICverything in nature 

 was thought of by him as having a threefold character, 



NO. 



1303, VOL. 50] 



