Читать книгу Pharmacologia онлайн

68 страница из 211

In the year 1493, was born near Zurich in Switzerland, Paracelsus, or as he termed himself, Philippus, Theophrastus, Bombastus, Paracelsus de Hohenheim, a man who was destined to produce a greater revolution in the Materia Medica, and a greater change in medical opinions and practice, than any person who had appeared since the days of Galen. He travelled all over the Continent of Europe to obtain knowledge in Chemistry and Physic, and was a great admirer of Basil Valentine, declaring that Antimony was not to be equalled for medicinal virtue, by any other substance in nature: this opinion however does not deserve our respect, for it was not founded upon observation and experiment, but on a fanciful analogy, derived from a property which this metal possesses of refining gold, as I have before related. He also used Mercury without reserve, and appears to have been the first who ventured to administer it internally,^[105] for although Avicenna asserts that it was not so poisonous as the ancients had imagined, yet he does not attribute to it any virtues; he merely says, “Argentum quidem vivum, plurimi qui bibunt, non læduntur eo.” Its effects, when applied externally, were well known to Theodoric the friar, afterwards Bishop of Cervia, in the twelfth century, who describes the salivation which mercurial frictions will produce. Paracelsus, moreover, employed Lead internally in fevers,—“Saturnus purgat febres” was one of his most favourite maxims. He also gives us directions for the preparation of Red Precipitate with Mercury and Aqua fortis.