[159] Philosophiæ, tract. iv. De Mineralibus. Opera Paracelsi, ii. 282. “Quando ergo hoc modo metalla fiunt et producuntur, dum scilicet verus metallicus fluxus et ductilitas aufertur et in septem metalla distribuitur; residentia quædam manet in Ares, instar fœtûm trium primorum. Ex hac nescitur zinetum, quod et metallum est et non est. Sic et bisemutum et huic similia alia partim fluida, partim ductilia sunt--Zinetum maxima ex parte spuria soboles est ex cupro et bisemutum de stanno. Ex hisce duobus omnium plurimæ fæces et remanentiæ in Ares fiunt.” Paracelsus, as the founder of a new system of medicine, the object of which was to draw chemistry out of that state of obscurity and degradation into which it had been plunged, and to give it the charge of the preparation of medicine, and presiding over the whole healing art, deserved a particular notice; and I have even endeavoured, at some length, to lay his system of opinions, absurd as it is, before the reader. But the same attention is not due to the herd of followers who adopted his absurdities, and even carried them, if possible, still further than their master: at the same time there are one or two particulars connected with the Paracelsian sect which it would be improper to omit. The most celebrated of his followers was Leonhard Thurneysser-zum-Thurn, who was born in 1530, at Basle, where his father was a goldsmith. His life, like that of his master, was checkered with very extraordinary vicissitudes. In 1560 he was sent to Scotland to examine the lead-mines in that country. In 1558 he commenced miner and sulphur extractor at Tarenz on the Inn, and was so successful, that he acquired a great reputation. He had turned his attention to medicine on the Paracelsian plan, and in 1568 made himself distinguished by several important cures which he performed. In 1570 he published his Quinta Essentia, with wooden cuts, in Munster; from thence he went to Frankfort on the Oder, and published his Piso, a work which treats of _waters_, _rivers_, and _springs_. John George, Elector of Brandenburg, was at that time in Frankfort, and was informed that the treatise of Thurneysser pointed out the existence of a great deal of riches in the March of Brandenburg, till that time unknown. His courtiers, who were anxious to establish mines in their possessions, united in recommending the author. He was consulted about a disease under which the wife of the elector was labouring, and having performed a cure, he was immediately named physician to this prince.