Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
That of the minerals is called Stannar or Trughat; of the vegetable
kingdom, Leffas; while the astral bodies of animals are their Evestra.
The Evestrum may travel about apart from its body; it may live long
after the death of the body. Ghosts are, in fact, the Evestra of the
departed. If you commit suicide the Evestrum does not recognise the
act; it goes on as if the body were going on also until its appointed
time.
Man is a microcosm; the universe is the macrocosm. Not that they are
comparable to each other; they are one in reality, divided only by
form. If you are not spiritually enlightened you may not be able to
perceive this. Each plant on earth has its star. There is a stella
absinthii, a stella rorismarini. If we could compile a complete
“herbarium spirituale sidereum” we should be fully equipped to treat
disease. Star influences also form our soul-essences. This accounts for
our varying temperaments and talents.
The material part of man, the living body, is the Mumia. This is
managed by the Archæus, which rules over everybody; it is the vital
principle. It provides the internal balsam which heals wounds or
diseases, and controls the action of the various organs.
His theories of mercury, sulphur, and salt, as the constituents of all
things, seem at first likely to lead to something conceivable if not
credible. But before we grasp the idea we are switched off into the
spiritual world again. It is the sidereal mercury, sulphur, and salt,
spirit, soul, and body, to which he is alluding.
HIS CHEMICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL INNOVATIONS.
These fantastic notions permeate all the medical treatises of
Paracelsus. But every now and then there are indications of keen
insight which go some way towards explaining his success as a
physician; for it cannot be doubted that he did effect many remarkable
cures. His European fame was not won by mere boasting. His treatise,
_De Morbis ex Tartare oriundus_, is admittedly full of sound sense.
Some of his chemical observations are startling for their anticipations
of later discoveries. If there were no air, he says, all living beings
would die. There must be air for wood to burn. Tin, calcined, increases
in weight; some air is fixed on the metal. When water and sulphuric
acid attack a metal there is effervescence; that is due to the escape
of some air from the water. He calls metals that have rusted, dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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