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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
96
The
most
remarkable
of
the
alchemists
was
he
who
is
generally
known
as
Paracelsus.
He
was
born
about
1493,
and
died
about
1540.
It
is
probable
that
the
place
of
his
birth
was
Einsiedeln,
near
Zurich.
He
claimed
relationship
with
the
noble
family
of
Bombast
von
Hohenheim;
but
some
of
his
biographers
doubt
whether
he
really
was
connected
with
that
family.
His
name,
or
at
any
rate
the
name
by
which
he
was
known,
was
Aureolus
Philippus
Theophrastus
Bombast
von
Hohenheim.
His
father
in
alchemy,
Trimethius,
Abbot
of
Spannheim
and
then
of
Wurzburg,
who
was
a
theologian,
a
poet,
an
astronomer,
and
a
necromancer,
named
him
Paracelsus;
this
name
is
taken
by
some
to
be
a
kind
of
Græco-Latin
paraphrase
of
von
Hohenheim
(of
high
lineage),
and
to
mean
"belonging
to
a
lofty
place";
others
say
it
signifies
"greater
than
Celsus,"
who
was
a
celebrated
Latin
writer
on
medicine
of
the
1st
century.
Paracelsus
studied
at
the
University
of
Basle;
but,
getting
into
trouble
with
the
authorities,
he
left
the
university,
and
for
some
years
wandered
over
Europe,
supporting
himself,
according
to
one
account,
by
"psalm-singing,
astrological
productions,
chiromantic
soothsaying,
and,
it
has
been
said,
by
necromantic
practices."
He
may
have
got
as
far
as
Constantinople;
as
a
rumour
floated
about
that
he
received
the
Stone
of
Wisdom
from
an
adept
in
that
city.
He
returned
to
Basle,
and
in
1527
delivered
lectures
with
the
sanction
of
the
Rector
of
the
university.
He
made
enemies
of
the
physicians
by
abusing
their
custom
of
seeking
knowledge
only
from
ancient
writers
and
not
from
nature;
he
annoyed
the
apothecaries
by
calling
their
tinctures,
decoctions,
and
extracts,
mere
soup-messes;
and
he
roused
the
ire
of
all
learned
people
by
delivering
his
lectures
in
German.
He
was
attacked
publicly
and
also
anonymously.
Of
the
pamphlets
published
against
him
he
said,
"These
vile
ribaldries
would
raise
the
ire
of
a
turtle-dove."
And
Paracelsus
was
no
turtle-dove.
The
following
extract
from
(a
translation
of)
the
preface
to
The
Book
concerning
the
Tinctures
of
the
Philosophers
written
against
those
Sophists
born
since
the
Deluge,
shews
that
his
style
of
writing
was
abusive,
and
his
opinion
of
himself,
to
say
the
least,
not
very
humble:--
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