ON METONYMS. 43 



Tabernre Montanse, that is, Bergzabern, a towu in the Palatinate 

 (stadt in der Pfalz). 



The famous name Paracelsus was probably intended to express a 

 relation to Celsus, the great medical philosopher of the first century, 

 and seems to be formed on tbe analogy of ' paradoxus/ ' contrary to 

 opinion ;' as though it would describe one who could astonish Celsus. 

 Two of his Tracts are entitled respectively, Paragranum, Paramirum. 

 It has however been imagined by some that ' Paracelsus' has reference 

 to 'Hohenheim,' a place from which his father derived an agnomen; 

 the family-name being Bombast von Hohenheim. The complete series 

 of names possessed or assumed by Paracelsus himself was : Philippus 

 Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombastus ab Hohenheim Eremita. 

 He was born in 1493 at Einsiedeln, the site of an ancient Swiss monas- 

 tery : in monkish phi^aseology, the neighborhood was styled Helvetije 

 Eremus. Hence comes the final term in the series of names borne by 

 Paracelsus, Eremita. The inflated and mysterious words adopted profes- 

 sionally by Paracelsus are said to have been the original ' Bombast,' as 

 applied to language. Here is a brief specimen of a letter of his to 

 Erasmus, who had consulted him at Bale in 1522 : ' Quse mihi sagas 

 musa et Astoos tribuit medica, candide apud me damans : similium 

 judiciorum manifestus sum auctor. Regio hepatis pharraacis non indi- 

 get, nee alias du^e species indigent lasativis. Medicamen est magistrale 

 arcanum potius es re cDmfortativa specifica ex melleis abstersivis, id 

 est, consolidativis.' More follows. (The Astoos is probably the mys- 

 tic familiar, Azoth, kept by 'Bombastus,' as Butler speaks, Hud. iii. 

 1. 628, " shut in the pummel of his sword.") Erasmus appears to 

 have been well pleased with the opinion given. In his reply he says : 

 'Demiror unde me tarn penitus noris semel duntaxat visum. JEmg- 

 mata tua non es arte medica, quam nunquam didici, sed es misero 

 seusu verissima esse agnosco,' &c. The great specific of Paracelsus 

 was a tincture of opium : a remedy omnino laudandum : hence by 

 popular corruption our familiar word 'laudanum.' 



In the metonymising of Italian personal names^ the process is often 

 simply to revert to the original form of the word. As when Perbuono 

 becomes Perbonus ; Giovinazzo, Juvenatius; Paolo Giovio, Paulus 

 Jovius; Giovanni Giocondo, Johannes Jucundus; Feboni, Phoebo- 

 nius , Vettori, Victorius; Settali, Septalius; Navigero, Naugerius. 

 Thus, Accorsi, author of the "Great Gloss," a work on Law in sis 

 folio volumes, published in the 18th century, is also Accursius. Some" 

 times a compound name is represented by a similar compound, as when 



