Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Rethinking Sex in Early Modern Germany: Negotiating Medical Authority
- 2 Predestined Conception: Seeds of Procreation and the Workings of the Womb
- 3 What about Mary? Contemplating Divine and Human Birth
- 4 Adam, Eve and the Human Body: Paracelsus's Nature Dilemma
- 5 Paracelsus's Theory of Embodiment in the Popular Press
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Introduction
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Rethinking Sex in Early Modern Germany: Negotiating Medical Authority
- 2 Predestined Conception: Seeds of Procreation and the Workings of the Womb
- 3 What about Mary? Contemplating Divine and Human Birth
- 4 Adam, Eve and the Human Body: Paracelsus's Nature Dilemma
- 5 Paracelsus's Theory of Embodiment in the Popular Press
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
He was certainly a loud-mouthed and often drunk and boastful mystic; but he probably did much to deflect alchemy towards improving medical chemistry. His theoretical ideas were too clouded in mysticism to be useful, but in practical medicine he was more effective. He was one of the first to study occupational diseases and he recognized silicosis as a hazard for miners. He realized that goitre and creationism are related; and he used morphine, sulphur and lead in medicine, and mercury, with which he treated the then new disease of syphilis. He gave good descriptions of several types of mental disease, which he saw as an illness and not as due simply to demons. However, he firmly claimed that it is possible to create human life in the laboratory and gave full experimental detail on how to achieve this, starting with the fermentation of a sample of semen.
‘Paracelsus (Lat.), Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Ger.) (1493–1541)’ The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists (2002).The above excerpt gives a glimpse of the way Paracelsus's contribution to the field of medicine is usually assessed. Other reference sources call him ‘the father of modern chemistry’ or the ‘father of modern pharmacology’. His character flaws: drunkenness and abrasiveness, usually serve as qualifiers to his absurd contention that he could create human life in a laboratory. There are two major problems with this assessment. On the one hand, his drunkenness was documented by a student of his named Johannes Oporinus (1507–68) which raises the question of how accurately the student described his mentor. On the other hand, the authenticity of the tract on creating human life (Liber de humonculus) has been questioned by compliers of Paracelsus's works. Contrary to popular belief, Paracelsus firmly believed in the sanctity of human life and spent many years contemplating the degree to which God played a role in forming human bodies.
The bizarre and inaccurate descriptions of Paracelsus did not begin in the modern era, but rather are part of a legacy tied to his quest to define himself as a new and different kind of doctor.
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- Information
- Paracelsus's Theory of EmbodimentConception and Gestation in Early Modern Europe, pp. 1 - 8Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014