Paracelsus imagined also a _sideric sulphur_, which being vivified by the influence of the stars, gives bodies the property of growing, and of being combustible. He admits also a _sideric mercury_, the foundation of fluidity and volatilization. The concourse of these three substances forms the body. In different parts of his works, Paracelsus says, that the _elements_ are composed of these three principles. In plants he calls the salt _balsam_, the sulphur _resin_ and the mercury _gotaronium_. In other passages he opposes the assertion of the Galenists, that _fire_ is _dry_ and _hot_, _air cold_ and _moist_, _earth dry_ and _cold_, _water moist_ and _cold_. Each of these elements, he says, is capable of admitting all qualities, so that in reality there exists a _dry water_, a _cold fire_, &c. I must not omit another remarkable physiological doctrine of Paracelsus, namely, that there exists in the stomach a demon called _Archæus_, who presides over the chemical operations which take place in it, separating the poisonous from the nutritive part of food, and furnishing the alimentary substances with the tincture, in consequence of which they become capable of being assimilated. This _ruler of the stomach_, who changes bread into blood, is the type of the physician, who ought to keep up a good understanding with him, and lend him his assistance. To produce a change in the humours ought never to be the object of the true physician, he should endeavour to concentrate all his operations on the stomach and the ruler who reigns in it. This Archæus to whom the name of _Nature_ may also be given, produces all the changes by his own power. It is he alone who cures diseases. He has a _head_ and _hands_, and is nothing else than the _spirit of life_, the _sideric body_ of man, and no other spirit besides exists in the body. Each part of the body has also a peculiar stomach in which the secretions are elaborated. There are, he informs us, five different causes of diseases. The first is the _ens astrorum_. The constellations do not immediately induce diseases, but they alter and infect the air. This is what, properly speaking constitutes the _entity of the stars_. Some constellations _sulphurize_ the atmosphere, others communicate to it _arsenical_, _saline_, or _mercurial_ qualities. The arsenical astral entities injure the blood, the mercurial the head, the saline the bones and the vessels. Orpiment occasions tumours and dropsies, and the _bitter stars_ induce fever.