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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
98
The
turbulent
and
restless
spirit
of
Paracelsus
brought
him
into
open
conflict
with
the
authorities
of
Basle.
He
fled
from
that
town
in
1528,
and
after
many
wanderings,
he
found
rest
at
Salzburg,
under
the
protection
of
the
archbishop.
He
died
at
Salzburg
in
1541,
in
his
forty-eighth
year.
The
character
and
abilities
of
Paracelsus
have
been
vastly
praised
by
some,
and
inordinately
abused
by
others.
One
author
says
of
him:
"He
lived
like
a
pig,
looked
like
a
drover,
found
his
greatest
enjoyment
in
the
company
of
the
most
dissolute
and
lowest
rabble,
and
throughout
his
glorious
life
he
was
generally
drunk."
Another
author
says:
"Probably
no
physician
has
grasped
his
life's
task
with
a
purer
enthusiasm,
or
devoted
himself
more
faithfully
to
it,
or
more
fully
maintained
the
moral
worthiness
of
his
calling
than
did
the
reformer
of
Einsiedeln."
He
certainly
seems
to
have
been
loved
and
respected
by
his
pupils
and
followers,
for
he
is
referred
to
by
them
as
"the
noble
and
beloved
monarch,"
"the
German
Hemes,"
and
"our
dear
Preceptor
and
King
of
Arts."
There
seems
no
doubt
that
Paracelsus
discovered
many
facts
which
became
of
great
importance
in
chemistry:
he
prepared
the
inflammable
gas
we
now
call
hydrogen,
by
the
reaction
between
iron
filings
and
oil
of
vitriol;
he
distinguished
metals
from
substances
which
had
been
classed
with
metals
but
lacked
the
essential
metalline
character
of
ductility;
he
made
medicinal
preparations
of
mercury,
lead
and
iron,
and
introduced
many
new
and
powerful
drugs,
notably
laudanum.
Paracelsus
insisted
that
medicine
is
a
branch
of
chemistry,
and
that
the
restoration
of
the
body
of
a
patient
to
a
condition
of
chemical
equilibrium
is
the
restoration
to
health.
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