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GALEN AND PARACELSUS. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. C. DALTON, M. D., 
 
 PEOrZSSOR OF PHTSIOLOeX Iir THE OOLLBOE OT PHTSICIANS AOT) SUBOEONS. 
 
 \BBPBmTEB FROM TEE N. T. MEDICAL JOURNAL, MAT, 1873.] 
 
 NEW TOEK: 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY*, 
 
 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 
 
 18V3. 
 
GALEIsT AND PAEACELSUS.' 
 
 Me. PsEsroENT and Gentlemen: As the agreeable duty 
 has been assigned to me of offering to the Academy a paper 
 this evening, I will venture to ask your attention, in the 
 interval of more important business, to a brief sketch of two 
 historical personages who may be considered as representing, 
 each in his different way, two of the most remarkable phases 
 of medical character. 
 
 These two persons are Galen and Paracelsus. 
 
 Galen was born early in the second century of the Christian 
 era, at the city of Pergamus, near the western coast of Asia 
 Minor, opposite the ^gean Archipelago... He^waff Greek by 
 desert as well as by birth, the son of U ikon,-an architect, who 
 was a man of good fortune, and accomplished in his profes- 
 sion^ - Galen himself received a liberal education in the vari- 
 ous bran ches^f knowledge cultivated at,tlie„time. He studied 
 medicine jmder several masterSj and afterward resorted to 
 Alexandria in Egypt, then the great centre of medical science, 
 
 ' Read before tlie New York Academy of Medicine, Maroli 20, 1873. 
 
4 GALEN AND PAEACELSUS. 
 
 where lie devoted himself more-especiallj-toaii atomy. After 
 >ompleting his studies, he at first practised for a few years 
 ^with credit in his native city of Pergamus ; but afterward 
 ^ took up his residence in Eome, where the greater part of his 
 professionaLhfe was-^ent, and. where he took the mosTpromi- 
 hent rank among. the physicians of the time. He was there- 
 \for£L&r many yeai'S the most ^celehrate'd 'physician in the first 
 city of the world. He. was the representative man in the' 
 "Medical profession of his day^-and he left an impress -upon 
 medical science and art which lasted for more than a thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 It is not always easy to appreciate fully the intellectual 
 calibre of men who lived in what we call the time of the an- 
 cients. We are separated from the ancient civilization and 
 culture, by the dismal interval of the middle ages ; and some 
 of the links which would connect us with them are, no doubt, 
 irrecoverably lost. Besides, as we have now accumulated so 
 much more actual knowledge than they possessed, we are 
 sometimes apt to think of the ancients as children in sciedce, 
 and out of the range, in this respect, of a comparison with our- 
 selves. We should not commit such a mistake, if we remem- 
 bered that the intellectual capacity of a people is not to be 
 measured by what they know, but by what they have discov- 
 ered ; not by the knowledge which they have received from 
 their predecessors, but by that which they have created and 
 handed down to their posterity. 
 
 Judged by this standard, the physicians of the ancient 
 
 time were at least fully the equals of the moderns ; and it 
 
 would be difficult to find, in any period of the world, a man 
 
 more remarkable than Galen for aU the essential qualities of 
 
 professional and scientific preeminence. 
 
 J One of his most striking traits was the respect which he 
 
 ^entertained for his predecessors in medical discovery. Hippoc- 
 
 ' rates tvas his admiration and his model, and he followed his 
 
 Lprecepts and ideas more closely than those of any previous 
 
 Aaacher. But this_wasnpt„a_jenilS--^'^4^8rrfiii_admiration. 
 
 He believed that the highest tribute he could pay^tcTsuch a 
 
 master would be in carrying out and developing his method, 
 
 so as to increase the knowledge already attained. 
 
GALEN AND PAEACELSUS. 6 
 
 y " There are many^pEyiicians,"~Fre says, " like the athletes, ^ 
 who would like to win prizes in the Olympic games, and yet 
 ■will not take the:^£^SsIjiiecessaryTo gain- them. For they are 
 loud in their praises of Hippocrates, and place him in the 
 
 ^ highest rank among physicians ; yet never think of imitating 
 litm themselves/"/ . ."iTiff-eertaialy no small advantage on 
 our side to live at the present day, and" to have received from 
 our ancestors the arts already brought to such a degree of per- 
 fection ; and it would seem an easy thing for us, after learn- 
 ing in a short time every thing that Hippocrates discovered 
 hy many years of labor, to employ the rest of our lives in in- 
 vestigating what still remains unknown." ' 
 
 Galen was devotedly fond of anatomy, and insisted upon 
 
 . it, in opposition to some of the medical sects of the time, as 
 an indispensable basis for rational medicine. He constantly 
 expresses his admiration for the manner in which all parts of 
 the body are adapted to their functions ; and even the study 
 of the articulations, and the form of the bones and their at- 
 tachments, have .an unceasing attraction for him. " In my 
 view," he says, " there is nothing in the body useless or inac- 
 tive ; but all parts are arranged to perform their offices to- 
 gether, and have been endowed by the Creator with specific 
 powers." " 
 
 His ideas in physiology were thoroughly scientific, and 
 entitled to the highest consideration in the history of the 
 subject. Of course it was impossible for him to master the 
 physiological details to be learned from chemistry, which ■^yas 
 then unknown, nor by the microscope, which had not been 
 invented. But in every part of the subject which was acces- 
 sible by the means at his disposal, his views will bear the 
 closest criticism ; and, in every thing connected with his own 
 personal acquirements, his superiority is beyond question. 
 
 He was an enterprising and judicious investigator, and an 
 industrious and successful teacher. Hejwa&_th£-fc6#-great 
 experimental physiologist — as no one, before his timCj^so far 
 as we^carTIeamph^Sit'ually 'resbrtfi3t~ to experiments uponjjii- 
 mals, as a means of discovery in physiology. Grjlen jooJumly 
 
 ' " Galen, Quod optimus Medious et quoque Philosophus." 
 = " De Usu Partium," iv., 2. 
 
6 aALEK AND PAEACELSUS. 
 
 did this, but also frequently illustrated his points by public 
 demonstrations. The result of this was a large accumulation 
 of physiological facts, many of them of the highest value ; 
 ^nd it is a mpst curious 'thiflg'to see how, in the subsequent 
 periods of European history for many hundred years, not only 
 was there no one to-rival or even to continue his discoveries, 
 but the profession was not able even to retain them ; so 'that 
 some of the most important, though expressly contained in his 
 writings, were practically forgotten, and had to be discovered 
 over again, centuries afterward. 
 
 ^ Perhaps the single discovery for which he is better known 
 \than for any other is-iha t of t be-^trTie"fTtBetieB--e^the^rteries 
 as vessels^Bontaining blood. In Galen's time and for several 
 centuries before," it was the prevalent opinion that in respira- 
 tion a vital air or gas penetrated into the pulmonary veins 
 from the lungs, was carried to the left ventricle of the heart, 
 and thence distributed all over the body by the arteries. This 
 vital air or " spirits," derived from the atmosphere, was what 
 called into play the organic forces of the system, and thus 
 «in§,iB,tained the life of the animal frame. 
 Y But Galen did not believe that the air penetrated as a mass 
 |into the heart and arteries. He considered that it was rather 
 a quality than the substance of the air, which entered the 
 blood in the lungs, and thus communicated to it an element 
 of vitality ; so that what circulated in the arteries, according to 
 him, was not air or " spirits," as formerly believed, but arte- 
 rial blood) vivified and animated by the qualities which it had 
 absorbed from tile air in the lungs. 
 
 He based this opinion on the positive phenomenon that, 
 although when the arteries are opened in the dead body they 
 appear empty, yet, if openeS during life, it is blood that 
 escapes from -them and not air. This was so palpable a fact, 
 that the older observei-s could not help knowing it; but they 
 explained it by saying, that when an artery is opened- during 
 life, it first empties itself of the air which it contained, and 
 then blood passes into it by-transfusion from distant parts. 
 Galen declared that this- explanation was untenable. " For if 
 
 ' Since the time of Praxagoras of Cos (b. o. 250), wlio first made the 
 distinction by nauie between arteries and veins. 
 
GALESr AND PAEAOELSFS. 7 
 
 you prick an artery," he says, " even with the finest needle, 
 blood escapes from it at the very first. Now, it seems to me 
 that, though the air supposed to be contained in the arteries 
 might escape instantly from a large wound, yet that it 
 would require considerable time to be expelled from one of 
 
 -moderate size, and therefore could not help becoming percep- 
 tible to the senses. It is said that blood is not discharged 
 from the vessel until aU the air has escaped, and that the 
 transfusion of blood begins from the remoter vessels. But 
 this involves two improbabilities : first, that all the air in the 
 arterial system should be so quickly discharged through a 
 mere needle-puncture as to escape detection ; and, secondly, 
 that the animal should continue to live after losing all the 
 vital air in his arteries." ' 
 
 But though Galen went through with all these arguments 
 in discussing the question, his own convictions evidently 
 rested upon the results of direct experiment. He exposed a 
 large artery in the living animal. Now, if the vessel, on 
 being opened, gave exit to blood, this blood must either have 
 been contained in it beforehand, or must have passed into it 
 from elsewhere. To test this point, he first included a por- 
 tion of the vessel between two ligatures, and so shut off all 
 communication with other parts. Then by opening it be- 
 tween the ligatures he showed that in reality it contained 
 blood and not air. From that time the existence of arterial 
 and venous blood, in two sets of blood-vessels, th« veins and 
 the arteries, was a permanently-established fact. 
 
 There are other points in regard to the cftculation which 
 he treated in an equally successful manner, such as the action 
 of the pulmonary and aortic valves, and the movements of the 
 heart in pulsation. One of his most reparkable observations 
 relates ta<aLterminal communicaticrfl oetween the arteries and 
 veins. He even uses, for this communication, the same word, 
 " apastomSsiS^ which we now employ. ~ 
 ,/ " The arteries and the veins," he says, " anastomose- wTtl 
 
 /each other throughout the whole body, and exchange wit 
 each other blood and spirits by certain invisible and exceg 
 ingjiy minute passages." ' _ 
 
 ' Galen, "An Sanguis in Arteriis Natura contineatur." 
 ' "De Usu Partiuni,"^,Tor 
 
8 aALEN A"NT) PARACELSUS. 
 
 Wlien we remember that even in Harvey's time this capil- 
 lary connection between the arteries and the veins had not 
 been made visible by the microscope ; and that its absence 
 was even thought a serious objection to his doctrine of the cir- 
 culation, it seems a singular fact that it should have been 
 taught by Galen fifteen hundred years before. 
 
 His description of the movements of the heart is hardly, 
 if at all, inferior to that given by Harvey, and shows 'how 
 niuch he relied upon direct observation. 
 
 " "We can also," he says, " see the arrangement and action 
 of the fibres of the heart under two conditions, either by ex- 
 amining the organ when just taken out of the animal and 
 \ still pulsating, or by removing the sternum in the manner 
 which I have described in the ' Treatise on Dissections.' For 
 when, the longitudinal fibres being in contraction, and 
 all the others relaxed, the length of the heart is diminished, 
 while its breadth is everywhere increased, at that time you 
 will see that the organ as a whole is dilated ; on the other 
 hand, when the longitudinal fibres are relaxed, and the 
 transverse contracted, you will then see the heart again 
 drawn together, while between these two motions there is a 
 short interval of quiet, during which the organ is everywhere 
 exactly constricted about its contents, all the fibres acting 
 together and especially the oblique. The contraction of the 
 ; heart is also in great measure aided by the strong bands in 
 , the interior of the ventricles {the columnce earned^, which in 
 contracting draw its walls inward. For between the two 
 ;■ ventricles there'ns a sort_ of s epta gi, to which these bands are 
 i aittadroSfformingHnr this way a connection between it and 
 j the external walls. When these walls, therefore, approach 
 / the septum, the heart is extended in the direction of its length, 
 ' but contracted in the direction of its breadth. "When the 
 sides of the organ, on the contrary, recede from the septum, 
 ( its lateral width is increased and its length diminished." ' 
 
 But the most curious point of all, in the history of the cir- 
 culation, is connected with the foetal condition of the heart 
 and pulmonary vessels. Late in the sixteenth century, Leo- 
 nardo Botali, who was a physician of considerable eminence in 
 
 ' "De TJsu Partuim," vi., 8. 
 
GALEN AND PAEACELSTIS. 9 
 
 Paris, happened to examine a heart, in -which the foramen 
 ovale, in the septum of the auricles, had remained open. He 
 published this as a most remarkable discovery, a vascular 
 canal which nobody had seen before, by which the blood natu- 
 rally passed from the right auricle to the left. Afterward it 
 was found that this was simply a blunder; for the foramen 
 only exists exceptionally in the adult, and is really character- 
 istic of the foetal condition, becoming closed within a short 
 time after birth. But it still retains the name of its mistaken 
 discoverer, and is often called, to this day, the " foramen of 
 Botal." 
 
 Now, Galen knew all about the foramen ovale, and the 
 ductus arteriosus also. He described them both, as physiologi- 
 cally associated with each other, and as peculiarities belonging 
 to the foetal condition. And he gives as a reason why the func- 
 tions of th^ pulmonary artery and vein are interchanged at 
 this time, that before birth the lungs merely require ordinary 
 blood for their nourishment and growth, and it is only after 
 birth that they enter on their functional activity. This pas- 
 sage is so important that I must ask the privilege of quoting 
 once more : 
 
 "Here," he says, "we again have reason to admire the 
 provisions of Nature. For so long as the lungs require only to 
 be nourished and grow, they are supplied simply with blood ; 
 but when the time comes that they are to assume an active 
 motion, their substance becomes Kghter and adapted for dila- 
 tation and compression with the movements of the chest. For 
 this reason there is a direct communication, in the fostus, be- 
 tween the vena cava and the c'ommencement of the pulmonary 
 vein {arteria venosa). But since this latter vessel performs 
 for the lung at this time the office of a vein, the necessity of 
 the case requires that its companion (the vena arteriosa) should 
 assume the function of an artery, while -the pulmonary ar- 
 tery {vena a/rteriosd) also communicates with the aorta. As 
 these last two vessels, however, are situated at some distance 
 apart, they are connected by means of a third narrow canal 
 (the ductus arteriosus) running from one to the other. In the 
 case of the vena cava and left auricle {a/rteria. venosa) on the 
 other hand, which are situated in immediate contact with each 
 
10 GALEN AJTD PAEACELSTJS. 
 
 other, the communication is made by an opening or foramen 
 common to both; and at this point there is placed a mem- 
 branous valve opening toward the left auricle {ad pulmonis 
 vas), so that it readily yields to the impulse of the blood flow- 
 ing from the vena cava, but will prevent its regurgitating in 
 the opposite direction." ' 
 
 He immediately goes on to describe, in the most graphic 
 manner, the closure of the foramen ovale after birth, and the 
 manner in which its valve becomes agglutinated to the walls 
 of the auricle. 
 
 There is no doubt that G-alen and others of his time knew 
 and practised the ligature of arteries for the arrest of haemor- 
 rhage, a method afterward lost, and again invented by Par6 in 
 the sixteenth century. He describes the ligature of arteries 
 as a regular operation, ' and expressly mentions its being done 
 by a surgeon of Eome in a case where the brachial artery was 
 divided, and where he speaks of it, in a passing way, as if it 
 were the recognized mode of stopping the flow of blood in 
 such cases.' He even says that where an artery of moderate 
 size, like one of the intercostals, is opened during an opera- 
 tion, the haemorrhage may be stopped by cutting the vessel 
 completely across, as its divided ends then retract and their 
 orifices are closed. 
 
 j^'But Galen's favorite field of investigation was the nervous 
 
 Bystem ; and his acquirements in this department alone are 
 
 /suflScient to place him in the foremost rank of experimental 
 
 J physiologists. He knew that the brain is the central organ 
 
 / of the nervous system, that the spinal cord is an oflBhoot from 
 
 it, and that the nerves are the organs of communication for 
 
 j the nervous influence, the action of the muscles being regu- 
 
 ! lated by them " as chariot-horses are managed by the reins." 
 
 '■ " The muscle," as he expresses it, " is the instrwrnent of volun- 
 
 ! tary motion ; and we have seen whence the principle of this 
 
 \motion originates and by what path it travels. It comes from 
 
 me brain, and through the nerves." 
 
 '■ The spinal cord, according to him, derives its powers from 
 
 ' "De Usu Partium," xv., 6. 
 
 " "De Methodo Medendi," 'v., 3. 
 
 ' "De Administrationibus Anatomiois," iii., 9. 
 
GALEN AND PARACELSUS. 11 
 
 the brain • " for, if the cord be diTided in any part, the region 
 of the body above the point of section remains uninjured, 
 while that below loses altogether the powers of motion and 
 sensation." ' These doctrines, at the same time, were not 
 theoretical with him, but were all based on the direct result^ 
 of investigation. V 
 
 He followed out in detail the effects produced upon respi- ' 
 ration by dividing the spinal cord at various points in the 
 neck and back — as affecting, together or separately, the inter- 
 costal ^nd phrenic nerves ; and he indicated fully the distinc- 
 tion between abdominal and thoracic respiration. 
 
 "If the cord," he says, "be divided between the third and 
 fourth cervical vertebrae, the animal at once stops breathing 
 and becomes completely paralyzed, not only in the chest, but in 
 the whole body below the point of section ; if between the sixth 
 and seventh, the thoracic muscles are paralyzed, and the animal 
 breathes by the. diaphragm alone; and, the farther down 
 among the lower vertebrae you make the section, the greater 
 the number of thoracic muscles you will leave uninjured." ' 
 
 Einally, he knew that division of the cord at its point of 
 origin was instantly fatal ; and, like modern experimenters 
 since the time of Flourens, he was accustomed to kill his ani- 
 mals, when he desired to do so for certain purposes, either by 
 suffocation, by strangling, by opening the larger blood-vessels, 
 or by section of the medulla at the level of the first cervical 
 vertebra.^ . 
 
 . His researches on the spinal cord wa'e all characterized bM 
 great fulness and accuracy. Besides the experiments already\ 
 mentioned, he was accustomed to make a division of one lat- 
 eral half of the organ, the other half remaining untouched. 
 He says that " transverse sections of the cord up to the median 
 line do not paralyze all the parts below, but only those on the 
 corresponding side — the right side of the body when the right 
 haK of the cord is divided, and the left side after division of 
 the left half." * 
 
 ' " Be Hippooratis et Platonis placitis," vii., 8. 
 " "De Administrationibus Anatomicis," viii., 9. 
 " " De Administrationibus/Anatomicis," viii., 10. 
 * "De Locis affeotis," iii., 14. 
 
12 GALEN AND PAEACELSTJS. 
 
 But the most delicate of his experiments on the spinal 
 cord is that of its longitudinal section in the median line, 
 j which he describes, with its results, in express terms : "If the 
 ; spinal cord," he says, " be divided lengthwise from above 
 ; downward by a straight section through the median line, none 
 i of the nerves going to the intercostal muscles are paralyzed, 
 \ either on one side or the other, nor any of those going to the 
 lloins or the lower limbs." ' 
 
 ] He showed in this way that there is no crossing of the mo- 
 tor influence in the cord from side to side, but that eachjateral 
 half, in this respect, is independent of the other. It i^ only 
 
 ■ within the recollection of all of us that our distinguished 
 } friend Dr. Brown-Sequard has shown that a longitudinal 
 ; section of the cord in the median line, while it does not in- 
 terfere with motion, does in reality destroy sensibility. Ga- 
 len was evidently almost on the point of the same discovery ; 
 but his attention was confined, in this particular instance, to 
 
 ■ the paralysis of motion, so that he did not observe the effect 
 
 ; produced upon sensibility ; and it was only after the lapse of 
 ' sfeventeen centuries that the experiment was completed, and 
 the crossing of the sensitive fibres shown, by means, in great 
 part, of this same longitudinal section. 
 
 ^""■Blit Galen was fully aware of the different and indepen- 
 , dent affections of motion and sensation, as well as of the pa. 
 •ralysis of different parts. He makes the distinction of paraly- 
 sis of the lower half of the body alone, or what we call para- 
 plegia — ^paralysis of oiie lateral half, or hemiplegia — hemiple- 
 gia with or without facial paralysis — ^paralysis of motion alone, 
 that of sensation alone, and that of both motion and sensa- 
 tion together." 
 
 He was very clear as to the distinction between motor and 
 sensitive nerves, and pointed out many, if not all, of the cases 
 in which this distinction exists. He showed that the third 
 pair of cranial nerves were the motor nerves of the muscles 
 of the eyeball, while the optic was its special sensitive nerve 
 ; of sight ; that the tongue has a sensitive nerve of touch and 
 ' taste, derived from the trigeminal, and distributed to its mu- 
 
 ' " De Administrationibus Anatomicis," viii., 6. 
 " "De Locis affectis," iii., 4. 
 
GALEN AND PAEAOELSTJS. 18 
 
 cous membrane, while its motor nerve is the hypoglossal, dis- 
 tributed to its muscles ; and that the trigeminal is the general 
 sensitive nerve of the face, while it also gives motor branches 
 to the temporal and masseter muscles. His only mistake 
 about this nerve was, that he considered it as also supplying 
 motor branches to the nostrils and lips ; but that is no more 
 than Sir Charles Bell still did in 1821. 
 
 Galen regarded the two properties of sensibility and mo- 
 tion as differing in Hnd, and not merely in degree. On one 
 occasion he was consulted in a case where a man had for 
 some .time lost the power of sensatioji in one of his hands, 
 though he retained the power of motion. A discussion arose 
 how it could be possible for one of these nervous faculties to 
 be abolished without the other ; and the reason , given was 
 that the power of sensation was a passive one, and so com- 
 paratively feeble, while that of motion was active and there- 
 fore stronger; and - that,, accordingly, an injury of a certain 
 kind might abolish the weaker of these powers, or sensation, 
 and leave the stronger, or that of motion, untouched. But 
 Galen asked his colleagues how, in that case, they could ex- 
 plain instances in which the power of sensation remained, 
 while that of motion was abolished ; ' it then being the 
 stronger faculty which was affected, and the weaker left un- 
 touched. He maintained, on the contrary, that the two powers 
 were exercised by different nerves, either of which might be 
 paralyzed separately from the other. 
 
 Galen's idea of the distinction between motor and sensitive 
 nerves, based on observation and experiment, was closely con- 
 nected with their anatomical distribution. , A motor nerve, 
 according to him, was distributed to the muscles ; a sensitive 
 nerve was distributed to the skin. " If, therefore," he says, 
 " the nerves distributed to the muscles be affected, motion dis- 
 appears ; if those going to the skin, sensation." ' A long time 
 afterward, physiologists generally adopted the opinion that 
 this distinction included a radical difference in the nature of 
 the nervous action — that there were two kinds of nervous fila- 
 ments, namely, sensitive filaments, which were capable of com- 
 municating sensation alone, and motor filaments, capable only 
 
 ' " De Locis affectis," i., 5. ' Ibid. 
 
14 GALEK AKD PARACELSUS. 
 
 of exciting motion — and tliat these two kinds of filaments 
 were present in yarjing proportions in different nerves, It is 
 singular that within a short time, from the experiments of 
 Vulpian and Paul Bert, we have reason to believe that there 
 is really no difference in the internal action of these filaments, 
 but only in the result produced by the organ with which they 
 are connected ; and that, as Gralen thought, a sensitive nerve 
 is simply one distributed to the integument, and a motor nerve 
 one distributed to the muscles. 
 
 His experiments on the pneumogastric and recurrent 
 laryngeal nerves, and his discovery that division of the latter 
 produces a loss of voice, are too well known to require repe- 
 tition. 
 
 His love for demonstrative proof and scientific precision 
 was accompanied by a liberal and active imagination, which 
 is frequently shown in his writings. We seldom meet with a 
 finer observation than this, in which, he compares the glottis 
 to a musical instrument. 
 
 " In the inner cavity of the larynx there is a structure of 
 peculiar formation, which we have already shown to be the 
 principal organ of the voice. It resembles the tongue or 
 mouth-piece of a reed-pipe, especially when seen either from 
 above or from below. . . . Instead, however, of comparing 
 this organ (the glottis) with the tongue of reed instruments, it 
 would be more appropriate to compare them with the glottis. 
 For the works of ISTature are both earlier in time, and more 
 perfect in construction, than those of art ; and, as the glottis is 
 the work of l^ature, while the reed-pipe is a production of 
 art, it is possible that the latter might have been made in imi- 
 tation of the glottis by some clever artist, able to understand 
 and copy the structure of natural objects." ' 
 / On the whole, however, his most prominent quality was 
 
 /his constant employment of demonstration, and his exclusive 
 reliance upon rational and intelligible evidence. He ridicules 
 
 \one of the medical sects of his day for their passion for dialec- 
 tics, by which their writings, he says, were " filled with riddles, 
 ks hard to comprehend as those of the Sphinx." On the other 
 hand, he praised Hippocrates for the opposite qualities, because 
 
 ' " De Usu Partium," vii., 13. 
 
GALEN A.ND PAEACELStTS. 15 
 
 he " did not think proper to describe the causes of disease in \ 
 accordance with an assumed idea — ^believing positive pbenom- / 
 ena to be always more worthy of credit than any imaginary / 
 conception." ' 
 
 In his discussions and controversies he occasionally showed 
 a strong vein of humor. Some of the critics had objected to 
 his doctrine of the offices of the arteries and veins as con- 
 nected with respiration, that it must be incorrect, because the 
 same two sets of vessels existed before birth, at a time when 
 respiration is not yet established. 
 
 " Here," he says, " they think they have shown that there 
 is no such natural provision as I have described, and that all 
 I have said on this subject is without foundation. In reply, I 
 will simply charge them with a neglect of anatomy, for it is 
 only through ignorance of anatomical facts that they could 
 ever have been led to make such an assertion. They are pre- 
 cisely in the position of the man who, in counting his don- 
 keys, forgot to reckon the one he was mounted on, and ac- 
 cused his neighbors of stealing it; or like a man whom I 
 recently saw myself, much to my amusement, making a great 
 tumult and turning the house upside down, to find some 
 money which he held all the while in one hand, in a piece of 
 paper. Now, suppose that while these men were busy with 
 their impotent Tociferations, some by-stander had quietly 
 pointed out to one of them the donkey he was sitting on, or 
 had asked the other to touch his right hand with his left. In 
 the same way I reply to my critics by simply showing them 
 in the foetus the ductus arteriosus and the foramen ovale." " 
 
 Archigenes, who lived a few years before Galen, belonged 
 to the medical sect of the " eclecticists," and wrote a book of 
 considerable celebrity on the pulse. His style was involved 
 and obscure, and he had the foible of multiplying the subtle- 
 ties of -classification and definition, and of using words in an 
 unusual and peculiar sense. He assigned to the pulse eight 
 different qualities or modifications, which he designated by 
 the word Sitjxvfj'evai — a term of his own invention. These 
 
 '' Sprengel, "History of Medicine," Jourdan's translation, vol. i., pp. 
 311, 312. 
 
 " "De Usu Pai-tium," vi., 20. 
 
16 GALEK AND PAEACELSTTS. 
 
 eight qualities of the pulse were its size, force, velocity, fre- 
 quency, fulness, regularity, uniformity, and rhythm; and they 
 were each subdivided into other varieties, of the two extremes 
 and the natural mean, the long, the large, and the high pulse, 
 and so on, to an excessive degree. 
 
 Galen objected to all this, that there was too much fancy 
 in it, and too' little reality. 
 
 " This is a mistake," he says, " that Archigenes makes at 
 the outset, in enumerating the qualities of the pulse. For he 
 does not attempt to offer any proof of their being eight in 
 number, but only makes the assertion, point-blank, as fol- 
 lows : ' There are said to be eight qualities belonging to the 
 pulse, called by the purists Si,r])(7jf^evab.' As for me, however, 
 I cannot even guess the meaning of this word ' Strixv/J^vai,,' 
 neither do I know of such a term used by any of the Greek 
 writers. Consequently, I have no idea what Archigenes 
 means by it ; especially as he has not written a book to ex- 
 plain his own idiom, as Chrysippus did about the new words 
 in his ' Dialectics.' That would really have been the only 
 way to help us understand him. To be sure, you might sup- 
 pose, without the context, that he used the word in its ordi- 
 nary and vulgar sense ; but he takes good care to prevent this. 
 For he says that the qualities of the pulse are so called, not 
 by everybody, but only by the ' purists ; ' and we do not 
 even know who these purists are. . . . Certainly it would 
 have been much better if Archigenes had added to his state- 
 ment, if not a positive demonstration, at least some plausible 
 reason for it ; so that the reader might not find himself, at the 
 very outset, hearing the law laid down, without any evidence 
 ±0 support it." ' 
 
 Above all, Galen was unalterably opposed to quackery in 
 all its forms, whether intentional or mistaken. He would 
 have nothing to do with arcana, or occult remedies, that 
 is, medicines that act in some secret and unintelligible way, 
 and ^re supposed to cure a disease because they are good for 
 it. The only genuine specific known to medicine, was not 
 yef" discovered in his time, and for the pretended ones he 
 entertained a thorough aversion. His remedies were directed 
 
 ' "De Pulsuum Differentiis," ii., 4. 
 
GALEN AND PAEAOELSUS. 17 
 
 against the visible symptoms as thev arose, or to counter- 
 act the morbid condition of the system, which was thought 
 to have produced them. Since his time, the science of chem- 
 istry has, of course, added immensely to our knowledge of the 
 constituents of the animal body ; and his system of pathology 
 and therapeutics, based upon the four elements, is no longer 
 of any use to us. But his method of investigation was judi- 
 cious and fruitful, and many, if not all, of his discoveries 
 have retained their full value to the present day ; and for his 
 enterprise and indefatigable industry, his clearness of percep- 
 tion, and his genuine and scientific acquirements, he has never 
 had a superior in ancient or modern times. 
 
 Pajbacelsits was born in the year 1493, in the lowlands of 
 Switzerland, at the village of Einsiedeln, near Ziirich. There 
 is, however, a singular doubt, even about his name, birthplace, 
 and family. One of the writers says that his real name was 
 Hochener, and that he was of a low origin, and was bom in 
 the canton of Ajipenzell, near Lake Constance. He himself 
 claimed that his family name was Yon Hohenheim. It is 
 given on the title-page of several of his works as Theophrastus 
 Paracelsus, and he sometimes alludes to himself under the 
 same designation. Erasmus addresses him in a letter as 
 Theophrastus Eremites ; but the entire list of his names and 
 surnames, as given by himself, is Philippus Aureolus Theo- 
 phrastus Paracelsus Bombastes von Hohenheim. 
 
 It -does not appear that he had any liberal education, or 
 that he went through any such complete course of medical 
 studies as would entitle him to a medical degree. He trav- 
 elled, however, over different parts of Europe, visiting various 
 universities, devoting himself in great measure to the study 
 of alchemy and astrology, and practising the medical art wher- 
 ever he happened to be. This period of his life has little or 
 no weU-authenticated history, except that, in some way or 
 other, he acquired great celebrity as a practitioner in different 
 parts of Germany. His reputation, however, was already of 
 that sort that the profession at present always regard with con- 
 siderable suspicion ; that is, he was noted as having performed 
 a number of remarkable cures upon well-known and titled 
 
18 GALEK AND PAEACELStTS. 
 
 personages. He claimed to have cured no less than eighteen 
 princes, of royal or ducal blood, who had previously found no ' 
 benefit from the treatment of their regular physicians. 
 
 The result of this was that in 1526, at tlie age of thirty- 
 three years, he was made Professor of Medicine and Surgery 
 in the University of BMe, where he at once began a course of 
 most extraordinary lectures and publications. He taught a 
 set of doctrines of his own, in which he denounced, in un- 
 measured terms, the accepted- principles of medicine, as de- 
 rived from the ancients, and claimed a supremacy above all 
 other writers and teachers, whether previous or contemporary. 
 His dictatorial manner, and his extravagant and insane boast- 
 ing, were without limits ; and he had a certain kind of elo- 
 quence which, during the height of his popularity, attracted 
 the wonder and applause of his audiencei One of the speci- 
 mens of it is as follows : 
 
 He says that Philosophy, Astrology, Alchemy, and Virtue, 
 are the four pillars of Medicine. 
 
 " And for the same reason," he continues, " that I call 
 these the four pillars of Medicine, they are to be admitted as 
 such by you. You are to be my followers, and not I yours. 
 Me, me, I say, you will follow; you, Avicenna, Galen, 
 Ehazes, Montagnana, and Mesues, I shall not be your fol- 
 lower, but you shall be mine ; you, men of Paris, and Mont- 
 pellier, and Cologne, and Vienna ; you Germans, men of the 
 Danube and the Rhine, and the maritime islands, Athenians, 
 Greeks, Arabs, and Israelites, I am not to follow you, but you 
 shall follow me ; nor will any one hide even in the farthest 
 comer, where the dogs shall not piss on him " {c[^len canes non 
 permingent). " I am to be the monarch, and the monarchy will 
 belong to me. . . . For 1 tell you boldly that the hair from 
 the back of my head knows more than all your writers put to- 
 gether ; my shoe-buckles have more wisdom in them than 
 either Galen or Avicenna; and my beard more experience 
 than your whole Academy. . . . Do not boast yourselves and 
 say, ' "We have Galen for our father, or Avicenna.' As for 
 them, the stones shall fall upon them, and the sky shall pro- 
 duce other physicians, who will understand the four elements, 
 
GALEN AND PABACELSUS. 19 
 
 and magic, and tlie cabalistic art, that for you are only cata- 
 racts and a beam in tbe eye." ' 
 
 At the same time be bad no learning, and knew little or 
 nothing of tbe medical sciences, even as they existed at tbe 
 time. He miscalled medical terms, and misquoted Latin 
 verses. He even gloried in his ignorance, and considered it 
 as an evidence of originality. 
 
 " My own writings," be says, " are enough to prove this ; 
 for in this book I shall bring forward no less than six hundred 
 new inventions, and not one of thejn is admitted by any 
 philosopher or physician, ancient or modern, nor can be, un- 
 less he is willing to abandon the writings of the ancients 
 altogether. There are plenty who know that my whole library 
 is so small that I could hardly make out of it a dozen written 
 pages ; and, beside, my secretaries will testify under oath that 
 they have written every thing from my own dictation. The 
 fact is, that in the last ten years I have not read a single book. 
 . . . Hence that notorious and widely-known dexterity in 
 curing the sick, which I have employed .to such wonderful 
 ' advantage, both in the kingdom and the provinces, beyond 
 all other physicians, with their teachers and their books ; per- 
 forming, as I have, cures that they could not imitate, with 
 all their books, if they were to try forever." ' 
 
 He pretended to have a remarkable power of perception 
 and diagnostic skill. According to him, a man's body " ought 
 to be, to the physician, as transparent as a distilled dew-drop, 
 where not the slightest particle can escape the sight. The eye 
 of the physician ought to penetrate through a man's body as it 
 would through a limpid and sparkling fountain, where lie can 
 distinguish every pebble and grain of sand with its natural 
 shape and color. . . . All the members of the body ought to 
 be as transparent to him as a polished crystal, where not even 
 a hair could be concealed without his knowing it." ^ 
 
 His practice was of the heroic character. He discarded 
 most of the milder and simpler remedies previously iia vogue, 
 and treated his patients with a variety of arcana, or specifics, 
 
 ' " Prefatio in Librum Paragranura." 
 
 ' "Fragmenta varia, Theophrastas ad Lectorem." 
 
 ' " Liber Paragranum, I." 
 
20 GALEK AND PAEACELSUS. 
 
 extracted by alchemy from different mineral and organic 
 bodies. Opium, a drug which no school of practitioners 
 seems able to dispense with, was one of the few older reme- 
 dies which he retained in his pharmacopoeia. His specifics 
 and essences, of various grades, were some of them inert, but 
 others very powerful ; and he seems to have iised them all in- 
 discriminately, without much caution or intelligence. The 
 well-known story about the antimony and the monks, which 
 is sometimes attributed to him, is probably an instance of this. 
 He still continued to perform extraordinary cures; but, as 
 sometimes happens in such cases nowadays, soon after the 
 wonderful cure had been published to the world, the disease 
 took an unfavorable turn, and the patient died. 
 
 This happened in the case of Froben or Frobenius, an 
 eminent printer of B^sle, whom he cured of an attack of gout, 
 probably about the time when he first came to the university. 
 His success in this case gained him great .credit. But the 
 next year, in 1527, the patient had another attack ; and either 
 that or a repetition of the treatment proved fatal. Frobenius 
 was a great friend of Erasmus, the theologian ; and, between 
 the first and second of his attacks, Erasmus also became a 
 patient of Paracelsus. There was a correspondence between 
 them, and the two letters are rather curious, as illustrating 
 the peculiarities of both personages. 
 
 The first is from Paracelsus. 
 
 Theophrastus Paracelsus to his good friend, the most 
 learned Chief of Theologians, Erasmus Soterodamus : 
 
 What the learned Muse and Alstoos (probably referring to Frobenius 
 and some other person) have attributed to me in medicine really belongs to 
 me. I am certainly the author of these opinions. The region of the liver 
 (in your case) does not need any medicines, nor do your two other com- 
 plaints require laxatives. The medicine for yon is Magistrale, an arcanum, 
 extracted from a strengthening, specific, and abstersive, that is to say con- 
 solidative, syrup. For the troubles of the liver it is a Second Essence, and 
 in gravel of the kidneys it is esteemed a royal medicine. I know that your 
 system cannot bear colocynth, nor any disturbance, or at any rate very 
 little, from (purgative) drugs. I know that I am more clever and skilful 
 in my art than that ; and I know what, in your system, will secure a long, 
 quiet, and healthy life, and that you do not need evacuations. Your third 
 disease (to speak plainly) depends upon a matter^of some kind, either an 
 
GALEjST and PARACEISUS. 21 
 
 ulcerated putrefaction, or phlegm, perhaps procluced on tlic spot, or acci- 
 dentally collected, or else the excrement of the urine, or the tartar of a 
 vessel, or mucilage from other parts of the sperm, or a viscous or bitumi- 
 nous statd of the blood. It is a liquid gravel, coagulated by the potency 
 of salt (in which the coagulating power resides), as it is in flints or beryl. 
 This is the way it is generated, and I have seen it in your case. But what- 
 ever I have decided on, I have made up my mind that there are calcareous 
 mineral grains in the kidneys, under the form of coagulated matter. 
 If my specific practice, excellent Erasmus ! should please your es- 
 . cellency, I will take care that you have both a physician and physio. 
 Adieu. Theopheastits. 
 
 This reminds one of the Ojibway medicine-man in Long- 
 fellow's " Hiawatha : " 
 
 " Then a magic drink they gave Iiira, 
 Chanted singly and in chorus. 
 Mystic songs like these they chanted. 
 Beat their drums and shook their rattles : 
 ' I myself, myself, behold me, 
 'lis the great gray eagle talking, 
 I myself, myself, the prophet, 
 When I speak, the wigwam trembles, 
 I can cure you, Hiawatha, 
 I can blow you strong, my brother.' " 
 
 There is not very much difference between this and the 
 rigmarole of Paracelsus. 
 
 The reply of Erasmus shows that he was a little puzzled 
 by the professor's pathology, but still had great confidence in 
 his treatment. 
 
 Erasmus Soterodamus to the most skilful Doctor of 
 Medicine, Theophrastus Eremites : 
 
 There is nothing inappropriate in wishing mental happiness to the 
 physician by whom the Lord restores us to bodilyhealth. I am surprised 
 at your knowing my case so well after having seen me only once. I rec- 
 ognize the truth of your obscure hints, not from any knowledge of the 
 ■ medical art, which I have never learned, but from the painful experience 
 of the senses. I have already in times past had pains in the region of 
 the liver, without being able to guess at the source of the malady, and 
 have for several years seen gravel in my urine. What the third disease 
 (which you allude to) is, I do not quite understand, but still think it prob- 
 able it may be as you say. At this time I have not much leisure for taldng 
 medicine, nor for being sick or dying, I am so taken up with the labor of 
 
22 GALEN AND PARACELSUS. 
 
 my studies. However, if there is any thing that can alleviate my malady 
 without disabling me for the time, I beg you to let me know of it. And, 
 if you cannot do that, then explain a little more fully, in a fevr words, 
 what you have already said in a rather excessively laconic manner, and 
 prescribe other remedies which I can take as soon as I have leisure. I 
 cannot promise you a reward equal to your energy and skill, but I will cer- 
 tainly promise you my gratitude. You recalled Frobenius from the shades 
 of death, and he was a part of myself If you now cure me also, you will 
 restore each one of us to the other. I hope matters will so turn out that 
 you will remain at Basle. I fear you may not be able to read this letter, 
 ■ it is so hastily written. Adieu. 
 
 Eeasmtts Eoteeodamus 
 
 (By his own hand). 
 
 From an expression in the latter part of tliis letter there 
 seems to have been already a doubt whether Paracelsus would 
 continue in the university. Iij fact, he had excited by this 
 time a violent opposition among a large part of the profession, 
 which he attributed to jealousy of his superior skill and suc- 
 cess. He was nicknamed Oacqphrastus by his opponents, and 
 he sometimes alludes to this in his writings with considerable 
 irritation. Even the crowds of hearers, who were at first at- 
 tracted by the novelty of his style and doctrines, had consid- 
 erably fallen off; and many of them began to perceive that 
 the magnificent promises of his theory were not realized in 
 practice. His habits, too, were irregular, and his career as 
 professor was terminated by.an indiscretion which may have 
 been partly due to intoxication. 
 
 It seems he had been called to an eminent ecclesiastic suf- 
 fering from gout, and had bargained to cure him, as he main- 
 tained, for a hundred florins. He gave the patient a few doses 
 of his specific, and, when the pain was relieved, considered 
 the cure as effected, and demanded his hundred florins. The 
 patient refused to pay, and Paracelsus sued him in court for 
 the money ; but, on the case being heard, he was only awarded 
 the regular fee for his visits, according to the customary med- 
 ical tariff. He was so irritated at this that he assailed the 
 judge with vituperation, and was obliged to leave BAsle to 
 escape the punishment for this offence. 
 
 This was in 152T, less than two years after he had been 
 called to his chair in the universitv. It is said that his de- 
 
GAIiElSr AND PAEACELSUS. 23 
 
 parture excited but little interest, as his local popularity as a 
 teacher had already shown a marked decline. He continued, 
 however, to practise and write in the same manner as before ; 
 and his doctrines were maintained by a large number of en- 
 thusiastic partisans. 
 
 His ideas in medicine were a mixture of astrology, al- 
 chemy, and mysticism. Anatomy seems hardly capable of 
 being treated in this way ; and yet his anatomical notions may 
 be judged by the following description, taken from his chapter, 
 " De Anatomia Oculorum." 
 
 He divides the consideration of the anatomy of the eyes 
 into that of the substance, the material, and the jform, of 
 which the substance is from without; the material from within, 
 and the form in both : 
 
 " 1. Substantia. — The eyes are twins ; that is, two fruits, 
 or products, joined in the form of a cross, with reference to a 
 centre, in order that they may have, as nearly as may be, the 
 same integral composition. They are united in the middle, 
 and thence look downward with the stem, and upward with 
 the root. These trunks give off no branches, but ' only fruit j 
 that is, they produce a blossom which is the material, and bear 
 fruit which is the sight. The flower is white, the fruit is 
 purple, and eacli of them has a bark, which forms the tunics. 
 The wood is what intervenes between the tunics and the root. 
 In the pith is situated the sight ; tliat is, the substance of the 
 eye. 
 
 " 2. Materia. — The material consists of three things : 
 namely, sulphur, salt, and mercury." (According to Paracel- 
 sus, these three were the ingredients of every thing.) " Sul- 
 phur is the flower and fruit, in all colors, according to the 
 mode of resolution, outside the visual body. The visual body 
 is Mercurius, in which is contained the perfected sight, without 
 any other material. Salt is the solidification of both, since it 
 reduces the parts into one form ; that is, it completes the es- 
 sence of the visual body. 
 
 " 3. Forma. — The form is that of a cross, because the cen- 
 tral part bears twins. Afterward, each twin passes into its 
 own form, or rotundity, since the eyes in the body fill the 
 place of the sun, as in a microcosm." 
 
24 GALEN AND PABACELSUS. 
 
 By " anatomy," therefore, Paracelsiis did not understand 
 the internal structure of an organ, as it may be learned from 
 dissection, but a fanciful enumeration of vague similitudes and 
 analogies, which might be filled out by the imagination. Even 
 a list of the headings of his chapters would show a large pro- 
 portion of similar subjects. There are chapters — 
 
 On the Mystery of the Microcosm ; 
 
 The Philosophy of Theophrastus, or the Generation of the 
 Elements ; 
 
 On the Occult Philosophy ; 
 
 The Treasury of Treasuries of tlie Alchemist ; 
 
 On the Fifth Essence, or Quinta Essentia ; 
 
 On Magisteria ; 
 
 On Specifics ; 
 
 On Elixirs ; and 
 
 On the Signatures of ^Natural Things. 
 
 Alchemy formed a large part of the medical science of 
 Paracelsus. The alchemists had already been busy, for per- 
 haps a century, in their endeavors to transmute the baser 
 metals into gold. Chemistry, as we understand it, had no ex- 
 istence at the time ; but from the earliest periods it had been 
 easy to see that the metals were a class of bodies having pe- 
 culiar physical qualities, which gave them a certain^ family re- 
 lationship, and separated them from other natural substances. 
 This readily gave origin to the idea that the baser metals 
 might all be impure conditions of the nobler or more inde- 
 structible ones, of which gold was evidently the purest and 
 most perfect ; and the object of the alchemists was to expel 
 by some means their impurities, and so obtain from them the 
 metal in its most perfect and valuable form. For this pur- 
 pose they subjected the natural earths, the metals and their 
 salts, to all sorts of chemical manipulations, apparently with 
 very little regular plan, and without at all understanding the 
 nature of the changes which took place. But in this fruitless 
 search after transmutation they produced, in the course of 
 time, many substances which afterward became of real value. 
 They were already in possession of nitric, muriatic, and sul- 
 phuric acids, aqua regia, metallic antimony, terchloride of an- 
 timony, red precipitate, sulphuret of potassium, bismuth, and 
 sugar of lead 
 
GALEN AND PAKAOELSUS. 25 
 
 The alchemists, however, did not value these substances 
 for themselves, but only as a means of finding the philosopher's 
 stone, or tincture, which would have the power of producing 
 gold. By the sixteenth century this embryonic science had 
 become largely tinctured with charlatanism. The writers on 
 alchemy used, the strangest terms to describe chemical sub- 
 stances, and employed various signs to designate them, which 
 were not always the same for the same substance. 
 , Thus gold was represented either by the Sun, the lAon, or 
 the Swan; silver by the Moon and the Owl ; copper by 
 Venus ; iron by Mars and the Wolf j tin by Jupiter, the 
 Eagle, and the Stag ; and lead by Saturn and the Mole. 
 Traces of this practice stillexist in our own materia medica, 
 as when we use the terra " lunar caustic " for nitrate of silver, 
 or " Saturnine preparations " for the salts of lead. 
 
 One of their most singular freaks was the general habit of 
 using this studiously obscure language, in order to guard their 
 secrets from discovery, even by the reader. It is not easy to 
 comprehend why, if an alchemist wrote a book to teach us 
 how to make the philosopher's stone, he should not tell the 
 story so that we could understand him ; or, on the other hand, 
 if he did not wish his secret to be known, why he should write 
 a book about it at all. But, as a matter of fact, this was a 
 very prominent feature of nearly all the works on alchemy. 
 
 Paracelsus of course was an alchemist, and has much to 
 say about the production and virtues of the great elixir. Ho 
 claimed to be superior to the other alchemists, and to have 
 more efficacious means of success. Here is 
 
 " A quick and easy way to mahe the philosopher's stone : 
 
 " The old Spagyrites would not have needed to go through 
 with all this labor and tedious reiteration if they had studied 
 in my school ; they would have accomplished their object 
 equally well, but at far less labor and expense. And now at 
 this time, when Paracelsus is the monarch of the arcana, the 
 period has arrived for that discovery which before me was 
 hidden from all the Spagyrites. Wherefore, I say : Take only 
 rose-colored blood from the Lion, and glue from the Eagle, 
 and after you have mingled them together, coagulate them 
 according to the old process. You will then have ihephiloso- 
 
26 GALEN AKD PAEACELSTJS. 
 
 jyher's tincture, whicli men without number liave soiight for, 
 but very few have found." ' 
 
 If we try to interpret this lucid prescription, we should 
 remember that the " Lion " is one of the cabalistic synonymes 
 of gold, and the " Eagle " one of those of tin. If gold be dis- 
 solved in nitrormuriatic acid, evaporated and heated, and the 
 product dissolved in water, it forms a solution of the terchloride 
 of gold. This was probably the alchemists' " rose-colored 
 blood from the Lion." On the other hand, protochloride of 
 tin, which is a gray, resinous-looking, and easily-fusible sub- 
 stance, was perhaps what they called " glue from the Eagle." 
 It will precipitate the gold from a solution of its terchloride 
 in the form of a brown powder. 
 
 The recipe of Paracelsus, if translated into modern lan- 
 guage, would then read as follows : 
 
 " Take only a solution of terchloride of gold and a solution 
 of protochloride of tin, and coagulate them ; " that is, make a 
 precipitate by mixing them together. 
 
 "We should thus have, at the end of the operation, the same 
 gold, in a different form, which had first been dissolved in the 
 nitro-muriatic acid. 
 
 IS^ow that we have the precious article, however, it seems 
 that it is not yet quite ready for use, according to Paracelsus ; 
 and the operation which still rem'ains necessary can hardly be 
 called an inexpensive one. 
 
 " If the philosopher's tincture," he says, " is to be used for 
 transmutation, a pound of it is first to be projected over a 
 thousand pounds of melted gold. Then, at last, the medicine 
 will have been prepared which is able to transform the leprous 
 humor of the metals." " 
 
 Of all the arcana, or occult remedies which Paracelsus de- 
 pended on in practice, the most valuable was his Quinta Es- 
 sentia, or fifth essence, which he extracted from all sorts of 
 substances, animal, vegetable, and mineral. He considered 
 this quintessence as containing, in a concentrated form, all the 
 life, power, and occult medicinal properties of the substance 
 from which it was derived. Some of these were of extraordi- 
 
 ' "De Tinotura Physicorum,'' chapter iv. 
 " Ibid., cliapter vi. 
 
GALEN AND PAEACELSTJS. 27 
 
 nary virtue. For example, he said that the quintessence of. 
 pearls, extracted by himself, had such power that with it he had 
 restored to life and strength men who were already in the 
 agony of death." Of course, the quintessence of gold was 
 more valuable than any of the others ; and his process for ex- 
 tracting it is a fair sample of the laborious and fruitless pro- 
 lixity of the operations of the alchemists : 
 
 " Take pure gold, reduced to the smallest grains and 
 rubbed to a povrder with plumbago. A.dd to this, of the best 
 white wine that can be procured, 100 parts, and white resin 
 of the pine, 10 parts, and macerate in a glass vessel forty 
 days. Pour off the wine, add the same quantity over again, 
 and macerate as before. Repeat this a third time. Then take 
 all the wine from the three successive macerations, place it in 
 a glass vessel, well covered, and distil with a strong fire, so 
 that it may come over rapidly. When the distillation is com- 
 plete, place the liquid in a glass vessel, well covered with a 
 blind alembic,. upon a bed of ashes hot enough to burn the 
 hand. Keep it in this condition until nine parts of the liquor 
 are consumed or dried up, and only the tenth part remains. 
 To this remaining liquid add an equal quantity of the white 
 of egg, shake the mixture and distil together. At first dis- 
 til slowly and a white liquid will come over, which should 
 be set aside. Then increase the heat until the vessel is red- 
 hot, when there will come over a material of thin, honey-like 
 appearance and a strong odor. Keep this, for it is the fifth 
 essence of gold, and a royal medicine." ' 
 
 I have the highest chemical authority for saying that the 
 result of this process would be only ammoniacal and empy- 
 reumatic 'Substances from the destructive distillation of albu- 
 men and some ingredients of the wine. His " fifth essence " 
 would not contain the least particle of gold, nor any thing de- 
 rived from it. 
 
 The medicine of Paracelsus was also deeply imbued with 
 the cabalistic doctrine, which was then very much in vogue, 
 and which was the most senseless and futile of all the many 
 delusions of the period. This was the science of correspond- 
 
 1 (fc 
 
 ArcMdoxorum," liber iv., "De Quinta Essentia," p. 4. 
 De Quinta Essentia," pp. 6, 6. 
 
28 GALEN AKD PAEACELSTJS. 
 
 enees and sympatliies in ISTature ; tlie macrocosm and the 
 microcosm, or the imaginary relations between the planets 
 and terrestrial ohjects ; and the signatures of things, or the 
 external marks by which their occult sympathies and relations 
 were supposed to be indicated. The cabalistic writings are 
 even more difficult to comprehend than those of the alche- 
 mists, although they undoubtedly contained ideas which were 
 more or less understood at the time. But they were all mys- 
 tical in character, and never in the least degree connected 
 with any thing like scientific research or observation. 
 
 Some of the writers on the history of medicine speak of 
 Paracelsus as a reformer, and of the propagation of his ideas in 
 the sixteenth century as a reformation. This reformation was 
 the abandonment of the pi'inciples of the Galenic school, as to 
 the temperaments and the four elements, and the adoption of 
 more powerful remedies ex'tracted by chemistry from, mineral 
 substances. The writings of Paracelsus himself show how lit- 
 tle this movement deserves the name of a reformation. Chem- 
 istry did not begin its development, as an intelligible science 
 or art, imtil at least a century and a half after his death. He 
 employed chemical manipulations, and used their products in 
 the treatment of disease ; but it was in the blindest and most 
 reckless manner, without any rational study of the symptoms, 
 the natural history of the malady, or the real action of the 
 medicines. His pharmacopoeia was a collection of arcana, 
 magisteria, quintessences, and specifics, based mainly on the 
 doctrines of alchemy and the cabalistic art. As Daremberg 
 said, reformations in medicine are not made by men who are 
 strangers to anatomy and physiology, mystics in chemistry, 
 and empirics in practice ; they come only from the gradual 
 development of medical science by slow and laborious in- 
 vestigation. 
 y" If we take all his qualities together, Paracelsus may be 
 
 regarded as, on the whole, the most complete and typical 
 representative in history of the thorough-paced charlatan. A 
 rampant, blatant, boasting, ignorant vagabond, with a fece of 
 brass and a tongue like a race-horse, it is difficult to say 
 whether he did not really believe himself, in his blind way, 
 the medical enchanter he pretended to be. Unable to com- 
 
GALEN AND PAEAQELSTJS. 29 
 
 prehend tlie existence of genuine qualities in others, lie loudly 
 claimed tlie possession of superior knowledge, without ever 
 deigning to show how he had obtained it, except by a confused 
 kind of intuition, which we know has no place in the natural 
 sciences. He imposed for a time on the credulity of a credu- 
 lous generation, and has left his name as a curious monument 
 of mystification and folly in the history of medicine. 
 

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