" He recognized three
basic substances, sulphur, mercury and salt, which were the necessary
ingredients of all bodies organic or inorganic. They were the basis of
the three principles out of which the Archaeus, the spirit of nature,
formed all bodies. He made important discoveries in chemistry; zinc, the
various compounds of mercury, calomel, flowers of sulphur, among others,
and he was a strong advocate of the use of preparations of iron and
antimony. In practical pharmacy he has perhaps had a greater reputation
for the introduction of a tincture of opium--labdanum or laudanum--with
which he effected miraculous cures, and the use of which he had probably
learned in the East.
Through Paracelsus a great stimulus was given to the study of chemistry
and pharmacy, and he is the first of the modern iatro-chemists. In
contradistinction to Galenic medicines, which were largely derived
from the vegetable kingdom, from this time on we find in the literature
references to spagyric medicines and a "spagyrist" was a Paracelsian who
regarded chemistry as the basis of all medical knowledge.
One cannot speak very warmly of the practical medical writings of
Paracelsus. Gout, which may be taken as the disease upon which he had
the greatest reputation, is very badly described, and yet he has one or
two fruitful ideas singularly mixed with mediaeval astrology; but he
has here and there very happy insights, as where he remarks "nec praeter
synoviam locqum alium ullum podagra occupat.
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