Thursday, March 16, 2006

Paracelsus: A Smarty Pants



Paracelsus (1493-1541), the father of pharmacology has said "All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dosage differentiates a poison and a remedy."

From his biography at
http://www.crystalinks.com/paracelsus.html

In 1530 he angered the city council of Nürnberg by writing the best clinical description of syphilis up to that time, maintaining that it could be successfully treated by carefully measured doses of mercury compounds taken internally, thus foreshadowing the Salvarsan treatment of 1909.

He stated that the "miners' disease" (silicosis) resulted from inhaling metal vapours and was not a punishment for sin administered by mountain spirits.

He was the first to declare that, if given in small doses, "what makes a man ill also cures him," an anticipation of the modern practice of homeopathy.



Yeah, but what were his GRE scores?

2 comments:

Snerd Gronk said...

Paracelsus, (in Degrees): "… if given in small doses, "what makes a man ill also cures him …"

SG: In deference to Paracelsus, there weren't many Neocons around in the 1500's I suspect …

Snerd

Michael said...

Of course the man was great- greater than Celsus.

-Bruce