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be created. Small wonder then that the discovery of the 
stone was the main end of the alchemists. The work of the 
alchemists had very little beneficial effect on chemistry as 
a science. Discoveries of technical importance seldom 
sprang from it. Nowhere in their writings do we find definitely 
planned experiments to gain an insight into chemical processes. 
Ihey did however obtain in an incidental way knowledge 
as to the different substances used in their attempts to trans- 
mute metals. We cannot imagine, however, the enormous 
loss sustained when for centuries many of the best intellects 
were circumscribed by the vain notion of transmutation. 
With Basil Valentine, a Benedictine monk of the second 
half of the fifteenth century, a new epoch in chemistry was 
begun. He was the first to attempt the application of chemical 
preparations for medicinal purposes. His work was advanced 
by Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus, a Swiss, who taught 
that the aim of chemistry was not to make gold but to prepare 
medicine. He held that the operations in the human body 
were chemical ones and that the state of health depended 
upon the composition of the juices in the various organs. 
1 his was a distinct advance on the previous aims of the 
chemist. Paracelsus, however, believed with Valentine that 
organic bodies were composed of mercury, sulphur, and salt. 
He taught that an increase in sulphur gave rise to fever and 
plague ; of mercury, to paralysis and depression ; of salt, to 
diarrhoea and dropsy, and a decrease of sulphur to gout. 
He explained the chemical processes of digestion by assuming 
the aid of a personified force called Archeus. The diseases 
of the stomach were produced by this good genius becoming 
Paracelsus brought into use as medicine several compounds 
which until his time had been looked upon with dread 
on account of their poisonous properties. He gave a great 
impetus to the apothecary’s calling. Their stores had till 
then contained nothing more than roots, herbs and syrups, 
but they now had to make an acquaintance with chemical 
facts and processes, and from this time pharmacy may be 
said to have its source. 
Van Helmont, who has been previously mentioned, is 
worthy of a distinguished place in the medico-chemical 
school. By his researches on milk, blood, and saliva, the 
first foundation of chemical physiology was laid. He taught 
that copper displaced from a copper salt by iron was not 
newly created, and that chemical changes did not destroy 
substances but that they remained present in the new products. 
