Paracelsus:

The Practical Pioneer of Medicine

By Jonah Billings

Have you ever heard jokes about how strange and wrong the field of medicine
was in the 16th century? Well, it’s pretty much all true. Many patients actually died from
the medical “care” their doctors gave them. Apparently, the main cause of fevers back
then were ghosts living inside the body! When would the healers of that time figure out
that they were completely and totally wrong? Enter Paracelsus, the first practical doctor.
Paracelsus, born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim
(imagine having to learn to write that in kindergarten), was born on December 17, 1493,
in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. He was the son of a poor German chemist and physician.
His mother, whose identity is not known, died when he was very young. Shortly
afterward, his father pursued a chemical theory teaching job at Bergschule, a school
where students were trained to become the overseers of mining operations. It was at
Bergschule that Paracelsus had his first experiences with chemistry and metallurgy,
which paved the way for his remarkable discoveries later in life. After attending
Bergschule, in 1507 he began wandering Europe looking for good teachers and
universities. In the next 5 years, he is said to have attended 7 different universities--and
was disgusted with them all. “The universities do not teach all things,” he wrote, “so a
doctor must seek out old wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and
such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be a traveler.… Knowledge is
experience.” Paracelsus valued the wisdom of common folk over the dry Scholasticism
of Aristotle, Galen of Pergamum, and Avicenna, some recognized medical authorities of
his day.
As you can see, Paracelsus was already making waves in the medical world with
his blatant rejection of common medical ideas--and he was just getting started. After
finally sticking with one university, University of Vienna, long enough to graduate with a
baccalaureate in medicine in 1510, he traveled to the University of Ferrara in Italy.
There he was free to begin blasting apart common medical knowledge. His first big
discovery was that the stars and planets don’t control the parts of the body. As crazy as
it seems, most everyone back then thought the objects of space completely controlled
everything they did, and Paracelsus was the first major doctor to express rejection of
this theory. It is said at this time he began using his new name, Paracelsus (above
Celsus). “His new name reflected the fact that he regarded himself as even greater than
Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a renowned 1st-century Roman medical writer” (Britannica).
He then continued wandering Europe, serving as an army surgeon--twice. He
cured countless people along the way, and learned much during his travels. Wanting to
test him numerous new theories, he returned home to Villach to find that his reputation
as a miracle doctor had preceded him. He was appointed town physician and was given
a job as a lecturer in medicine at the University of Basel. There, he made many
important discoveries. He was the first to connect goitre, a common ailment back then,
with lead and other chemicals in drinking water. He also made public some of his
discoveries he made while in the army. “In his lectures, he stressed the healing power
of nature and denounced the use of methods of treating wounds, such as padding with
moss or dried dung, that prevented natural draining. The wounds must drain, he
insisted, for ‘if you prevent infection, Nature will heal the wound all by herself’”
(Wikipedia). Paracelsus also cleared the way for the modern vaccine, being the first to
say that “what makes a man ill also cures him.” Using this idea, he created a pill made
of bread and a small amount of the patient’s excreta that could even cure the Black
Plague. Also, in his typical rebel-like fashion, he attacked many well known cures of that
time and even burned the books of Galen and Avicenna. This incident caused a great
stir, and even caused people to compare him to Martin Luther. In the end, many of the
other doctors cast him out of Basel.
Though his reputation was tarnished, Paracelsus continued publishing his
medical theories. He used many elements in his cures that are technically toxic,
because he believed that “poison is in everything, and it is the dosage that makes a
substance toxic or remedial.” It is this discovery that made him “the Father of
Toxicology.” In 1530 he wrote a clinical description of syphilis, as well as a cure for it
that is still used today. He also stated that the “miners’ disease” (silicosis) resulted from
inhaling metal vapours and was not a punishment for sin administered by mountain
spirits (ha!). Finally, he published his Great Surgery Book, which restored his reputation
and made him rich. He was sought out by royalty for the rest of his life, which ended
when he died of mysterious circumstances in 1541.

Paracelsus was the pioneer of practicality in the field of medicine, refusing to buy
into the very superstitious mindset of other doctors at the time. Because of this, he was
able to create many new cures and correctly diagnose diseases. Paracelsus is the
person we should think of as not only the Father of Toxicology, but also one of the
founders of modern medicine as we know it.