Paracelsus

A Portrait of Paracelsus (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Paracelsus.jpg/220px-Paracelsus.jpg ())

Paracelsus At Work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pparacel.jpg ())

As you can see here, he wasn't known for being modest. But what exactly is he known for? I could be cheeky right now and tell you that he is known for not being modest, but that honestly wouldn't explain why I chose him as my personal hero. From the quote, you can tell he thought of himself highly. He was a physician, alchemist, astrologer, botanist and an occultist. You may think he is Greek or Roman from the Greek root "para" (which means, in this context, equal to, beside or greater) and the reference to "Celsus" the Roman encyclopedist, but he was actually German-Swiss. He was born on either November 11 or December 17, 1493 and died on September 24, 1541. His birth name was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim and was born in Einsiedln, Switzerland. His father was Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, a well-known German physician who was described to be the "Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order" had first introduced and taught him about medicine.

In the Renaissance, people were just beginning to discover science and all it had to offer. Paracelsus had quite a big contribution to science as well. At age 16, he had studied at the University of Basel, but ran away when the authorities found that he had been studying necromancy (which is considered as black magic). This is when he started traveling Europe and Asia. After he had come back from his journey, he had reportedly studied at the University of Ferrara and became an army surgeon. It was there where he discovered that sometimes, you don't need to do anything to the wound to make it heal. Later, he had been able to actually teach medicine, physics and surgery. Although, he did not stay there for more than eight months because he rebelled against the Galenic medicine, reportedly burning some of the man's works. When the authorities banned him from lecturing, he began to teach on the streets, not in Latin, but German, so that everyone was able to comprehend what he was saying. But because of a couple incidents, he had to leave Basel once more.

Contributions to Science Paracelsus was a pioneer for the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, he was also sometimes described as the father of toxicology and "the Luther of Medicine". He was the one who quoted "The dose makes the poison." (original quote was" All things are poison and nothing (is) without poison; only the dose makes that a thing is no poison") which means, that the substance will have a harmful effect only if the dosage is high enough. He believed in the concept of four elements, but also added that there were 3 other substances that the cosmos was created from, which were the tria prima; mercury, sulfur and salt. He had also made up some shocking and controversial theories for his time and ended up leaving the city for that. He had also made quite a few discoveries in the scientific field.

Paracelsus had a different point of view on medicine and metallurgy than most people of the 16th century. But the fact that he was thinking out of the box and made those hypotheses, he had made many, many discoveries in the science field. For example, he had dealt with syphilis, miner's disease, insanity, therapy, discovered zinc, surgery and healing wounds. Paracelsus is not my hero because of his huge ego. He is my hero because he was one of the greatest physicians and medical scientists of the Renaissance, spoke up for what he believed in and was quite ahead of his time.