The Paracelsians

The late Walter Pagel published extensively on Paracelsian philosophy and, more recently, Allen Debus searching work has redefined the importance of Paracelsianism for Renaissance and early seventeenth-century chemistry and medicine.104105 In a 

One aspect of this concerns the seventeenth-century revival of interest in the medicinal properties of spa waters.128 The tests required to ensure that these waters were safe to drink led to important advances in chemical analysis in which Boyle figured prominently. In a recent collection of essays on Renaissance science in which some little-known workers are brought to light, it is significant that medicine figures more prominently than either alchemy or chemistry.129 The examination of residues and deposits near the points at which mineral waters issued from the earth also initiated other forms of analysis as a means of solving wider problems in geology and related sciences.130 

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In a manner comparable to Christian eschatology, alchemical literature insisted on its own purificatory rituals that involved the preliminary torture, death and dismemberment of the prima materia. The canonical Catholic depiction of Christ s sacrificed body was a primary source for sixteenth and seventeenth century illustrations of the tortured body in anatomical and alchemical publications. In eflfect, the practice of Paracelsian alchemical medicine and surgery had a sacramental connotation, since the physician acted on the human body in the same manner as God worked on the great universal Macrocosmic Body. In like manner, the Paracelsian physician introduced the universal panacea, a liquid form of the philosopher s stone, into the alchemical alembic that was the Microcosmic human body. This alchemical medicine was permeated with the starry virtues of the heavens and the grace of Christ s Spirit, redeeming the body and soul of the patient by granting him not only an extended life on earth, but even eternal salvation. 

See the discussion of Khunrath s theosophy in Szulakowska, The Alchemy of Light (2000), 79-137. Christ, the Ruah-Elohim, became the Paracelsian azoth. See Heinrich Khunrath, Vom Hylealischen das ist pri-matmalischen oder algerminen naturlichen Chaos (Magdeburg J. Schmeidt for Johann Francken, 1616), 75, 86-88. Christ is also identified with the Paracelsian Salt, the prime matter of creation. 

Multhauf, Robert P. Medicinal chemistry and "the Paracelsians". Bull Hist Med 24 (1954). 

Debus, Allen George. The Paracelsian compromise in Elizabethan England. Ambix 8, no. 2 (Jun 1960) 71-97. 

Poynter, F.N.L. "Nicholas Culpepper and the Paracelsians." In Science, medicine and society in the Renaissance, ed. Allen George Debus, I, 201-220., 1972. 

Clulee, Nicholas H. "John Dee and the Paracelsians." In Reading the hook of nature The other side of the Scientific Revolution, eds. Allen George Debus and Michael T. Walton, 111-132. Kirksville (MO) Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1998. 

Ambrose, Elizabeth Ann. Cosmos, Anthropos and Theos dimensions of the Paracelsian universe. Cauda Pavonis 11, no. 1 (Spring 1992) 1-7. 

Debus, Allen George. The Paracelsians and the chemists the chemical dilemma in Renaissance medicine. ClioMedl, no. 3 (1972) 185-199. 

Jahncke, Wolf Dieter Muller-. "Magic medicine in the writings of Paracelsus and the Paracelsians and the rise of chemistry." In Systemes depenseeprecartesiens etudes d apres le Colloque international organise a Haifa en 1994 / reunies par liana Zinguer et Heinz Schott, eds. liana Zinguier and Heinz Schott, 35-47. Paris Honore Campion, 1998. 

McKee, Francis. "The Paracelsian kitchen." In Paracelsus the man and his reputation, ed. Ole Peter Grell, 293-308. Leiden Brill, 1998. 

Pagel, Walter. The Paracelsian Elias Artista and the alchemical tradition. 

Pagel, Walter and Marianne Winder. The eightness of Adam and related "Gnostic" ideas in the Paracelsian corpus. Ambix 16, no. 3 (Nov 1969) 119-139. 

Debus, Allen George. The Paracelsians in eighteenth-century France a renaissance tradition in the age of the enlightenment. Ambix 28, no. 1 (Mar 1981) 36-54. 

This paper analyzes the development of the concept of alkahest from its origins in the Paracelsian corpus to its mature form in the works of Joan Baptista van Helmont (1579-1644) and his successors. Historians of science have usually focused on the chemical aspects of the alkahest, taking into account especially the claims that it was a substance capable of dissolving all kinds of matter. This paper shows the medical implications of the alkahest it was not only a "solvent," but an important means of revealing nature s... 

Pinero, J.M. Lopez. "Eeighteenth century medical vitalism the Paracelsian connection." In Revolutions in science their meaning and relevance, ed. W.R. Shea, 117-132. Canton (MA) , 1988. 

On the "chemical philosophy" of the Paracelsian tradition, see Allen G. Debus, The Chemical Philosophy Paracelsian Science andMedicine in the 16th and 17th Centuries, 2 vols. (New York Science History Publications, 1977). Also see Arthur Donovan, Philosophical Chemistry in the Scottish Enlightenment The Doctrines and Discoveries of William Cullen and Joseph Black (Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press, 1975). 

Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz is actually a part of the rejection— rather than an afiirmation—of the Paracelsian homunculus, despite its obvious debt to the Hterary tradition of Paracelsus (235). 

A considerable part of the book is an attack on the Paracelsian theory of three principles. Boyle argues, for example, that none of the principles can be used to explain how a prism breaks up white light into different colors. Furthermore, authors who argued in favor of the three principles generally described them in such obscure ways that it was doubtful that they understood these supposed principles themselves. 

This volume of the series Medicinal Plants of the World Chemical Constituents, Modern and Traditional Medicinal Uses contains information on 16 plant species and follows the same format as volumes 1 and 2. Some of the plants discussed in volume 3 may be considered controversial in their classification as medicinal. However, the Paracelsian dictum that sola dosis fecit venenum has been appreciated since ancient times, and throughout the ages many highly toxic materials used for lethal purposes have also found applications in modern medicine. It has been recognized that plants contain substances that are either harmful or toxic. However, it is wrong to think that there are plant toxins that are known or that are likely to have adverse effects on any and every form of life. A common feature of most toxic plants is that they are also known for their curative properties, and although they may provide the cure for an individual s disease at one dose, they may cause the death of the same individual at another. 

Because his mechanical philosophy provided no adequate intellectual basis by which chemistry could be restructured, Boyle was compelled when discussing specific chemical bodies to use the familiar vocabulary and attendant concepts of the Paracelsian chymists ... 

Evans, Universall medicinCy s. C3. On the medicinal uses of minerals prior to Paracelsus, see Robert Multhauf, Medical Chemistry and the Paracelsians , Bulletin of the History ofiMediciney 28 (1954), 101—25. 

Multhauf Robert, Medical Chemistry and the Paracelsians , Bulletin of the History of... 

P. M. Rattansi, Recovering the Paracelsian milieu , in Revolutions in Science Their Meaning and Relevance, ed. W. R. Shea, Science History Publications, Canton, MA, 1988, pp. 1-26. 

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