A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



He laid the cause of all diseases at the door of the 

 three mystic elements salt, sulphur, and mercury. 

 In health he supposed these to be mingled in the body 

 so as to be indistinguishable; a slight separation of 

 them produced disease; and death he supposed to be 

 the result of their complete separation. The spiritual 

 agencies of diseases, he said, had nothing to do with 

 either angels or devils, but were the spirits of human 

 beings. 



He believed that all food contained poisons, and that 

 the function of digestion was to separate the poisonous 

 from the nutritious. In the stomach was an archseus, 

 or alchemist, whose duty was to make this separation. 

 In digestive disorders the archasus failed to do this, 

 and the poisons thus gaining access to the system were 

 "coagulated" and deposited in the joints and vari- 

 ous other parts of the body. Thus the deposits in the 

 kidneys and tartar on the teeth were formed ; and the 

 stony deposits of gout were particularly familiar exam- 

 ples of this. All this is visionary enough, yet it shows 

 at least a groping after rational explanations of vital 

 phenomena. 



Like most others of his time, Paracelsus believed 

 firmly in the doctrine of "signatures" a belief that 

 every organ and part of the body had a corresponding 

 form in nature, whose function was to heal diseases of 

 the organ it resembled. The vagaries of this peculiar 

 doctrine are too numerous and complicated for lengthy 

 discussion, and varied greatly from generation to gen- 

 eration. In general, however, the theory may be 

 summed up in the words of Paracelsus: "As a woman 

 is known by her shape, so are the medicines." Hence 



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