The composition of Paracelsus’s laudanum, the name of which he no
doubt invented, has never been satisfactorily ascertained. Paracelsus
himself made a great secret of it, and probably used the term for
several medicines. It was generally, at least, a preparation of opium,
sometimes opium itself. He is believed to have carried opium in the
pommel of his sword, and this he called the “stone of immortality.”
Next to opium he believed in mercury, and was largely influential in
popularising this metal and its preparations for the treatment of
syphilis. It was principally employed externally before his time.
He mocked at “the wooden doctors with their guaiacum decoctions,”
and at the “waggon grease with which they smeared their patients.”
He used turpith mineral (the yellow sulphate), and alembroth salt
(ammonio-chloride), though he did not invent these names, and it is
possible that he did not mean by them the same substances as the
alchemists did. Operinus states that he always gave precipitated
mercury (red precipitate, apparently) as a purgative. He gave it in
pills with a little theriaca or cherry juice. This he also appears to
have designated laudanum. It is certain that he gave other purgatives
besides.
It must be admitted that if Basil Valentine is a mythical character,
the reputation of Paracelsus is greatly enhanced. Nowhere does the
latter claim to have been the first to introduce antimony into
medical practice, but it is certain that it could not have been used
to any great extent before his time. If we suppose that the works
attributed to Basil Valentine were fictitious, so far, that is, as
their authorship is concerned, they were compiled about fifty years
after the death of Paracelsus, and at the time when his fame was at
its zenith. Many of the allusions to antimony contained in those
treatises might have been collected from the traditions of the master’s
conversations and writings, much from his immediate disciples, and the
whole skilfully blended by a literary artist.
Paracelsus praises highly his magistery of antimony, the essence, the
arcanum, the virtue of antimony. Of this, he says, you will find no
account in your books of medicine. This is how to prepare it. Take
care at the outset that nothing corrupts the antimony; but keep it
entire without any change of form. For under this form the arcanum lies
concealed. No deadhead must remain, but it must be reduced by a third
cohobation into a third nature. Then the arcanum is yielded. Dose, 4
grains taken with quintessence of melissa.
His “Lilium,” or tinctura metallorum, given as an alterative and
for many complaints, was formulated in a very elaborate way by his
disciples, but simplified it consisted of antimony, 4, tin 1, copper
1, melted together in a crucible, the alloy powdered, and combined (in
the crucible) with nitre 6, and cream of tartar 6, added gradually. The
mixture while still hot was transferred to a matrass containing strong
alcohol 32, digested, and filtered.
Besides mercury and antimony, of which he made great use, iron, lead,
copper, and arsenic were among the mineral medicines prescribed by
him. He made an arseniate of potash by heating arsenic with saltpetre.
He had great faith in vitriol, and the spirit which he extracted from
it by distillation. This “spirit” he again distilled with alcohol and
thereby produced an ethereal solution. His “specificum purgans” was
afterwards said to be sulphate of potash. He recommended sublimed
sulphur in inflammatory maladies, saffron of Mars in dysentery, and
salts of tin against worms.
Whether his formulas were purposely obscure in so many cases, or
whether mystery is due to the carelessness or ignorance of the copyists
cannot be known. Much of his chemical and pharmaceutical advice is
clear enough.
Honey he extols as a liquor rather divine than human, inasmuch as it
falls from heaven upon the herbs. To get its quintessence you are to
distil from it in a capacious retort a liquid, red like blood. This is
distilled over and over again in a bain mariæ until you get a liquid of
the colour of gold and of such pleasant odour that the like cannot be
found in the world. This quintessence is itself good for many things,
but from it the precious potable gold may be made. The juice of a
lemon with this quintessence will dissolve leaf gold in warm ashes
in forty-eight hours. With this Paracelsus says he has effected many
wonderful cures which people thought he accomplished by enchantment.
Elsewhere he speaks of an arcanum drawn from vitriol which is so
excellent that he prefers it to that drawn from gold.
He refers with great respect to alchemy and the true alchemists,
but with considerable shrewdness in regard to their professions of
transmuting other metals into gold. He considered it remarkable that
a man should be able to convert one substance into another in a few
short days or weeks, while Nature requires years to bring about a
similar result; but he will not deny the possibility. What he insists
on, however, is that from metals and fire most valuable remedies can be
obtained; and the apothecary who does not understand the right way of
producing these is but a servant in the kitchen, and not a master cook.
Hellebore was an important medicine with Paracelsus. The white, he
said, was suitable for persons under 50, the black for persons over
50. Physicians ought to understand that Nature provides different
medicines for old and for young persons, for men and for women. The
ancient physicians, although they did not know how to get the essence
of the hellebore, had discovered its value for old persons. They found
that people who took it after 50 became younger and more vigorous.
Their method was to gather the hellebore when the moon was in one of
the signs of conservation, to dry it in an east wind, to powder it and
mix with it its own weight of sugar. The dose of this powder was as
much as could be taken up with three fingers night and morning. The
vaunted essence was simply a spirituous tincture. It was more effective
if mistletoe, pellitory and peony seeds were combined with it. It was
a great remedy for epilepsy, gout, palsy and dropsy. In the first it
not merely purges out the humours, but drives away the epileptic body
itself. The root must be gathered in the waning of the moon, when it is
in the sign Libra, and on a Friday.
[Illustration: PARACELSUS (A).]
Paracelsus made balsam from herbs by digesting them in their own
moisture until they putrefied, and then distilling the putrefied
material. He obtained a number of essential oils and used them freely
as quintessences. He defines quintessences thus:--Every substance is a
compound of various elements, among which there is one which dominates
the others, and impresses its own character on the compound. This
dominating element, disengaged, is the quintessence. This term he
obtained from Aristotle.
His oil of eggs was obtained by boiling the eggs very hard, then
powdering them, and distilling until an oil rose to the surface. This
he recommended against scalds and burns. Oil of aniseed he prescribed
in colds to be put in the nostrils and applied to the temples on going
to bed. Oil of tartar rectified in a sand-bath until it acquires a
golden colour will cure ulcers and stone. Coral would quicken fancy,
but drive away vain visions, spectres, and melancholy. Oil of a man’s
excrements, twice distilled, is good to apply in fistulas, and also
in baldness. Oil of a man’s skull which had never been buried got by
distillation was given in 3 grain doses for epilepsy.
[Illustration: PARACELSUS (B).]
He had abundant faith in animal remedies. His “Confectio
Anti-Epileptica,” formulated by his interpreter, Oswald Crollius, is as
follows:--First get three human skulls from men who have died a violent
death and have not been buried. Dry in the air and coarsely crush. Then
place in a retort and apply a gradually increasing heat. The liquor
that passed over was to be distilled three times over the same fæces.
Eight ounces of this liquor were to be slowly distilled with 3 drachms
each of species of diamusk, castorum, and anacardine honey. To the
distilled liquor 4 scruples of liquor of pearls and one scruple of oil
of vitriol were to be added. Of the resulting medicine one teaspoonful
was to be taken in the morning, fasting, by epileptic subjects, for
nine days consecutively.
[Illustration: PARACELSUS (C).]
An Arcanum Corallinum of Paracelsus which was included in some of the
earlier London Pharmacopœias, was simply red precipitate prepared in a
special manner. The Committee of the College of Physicians which sat
in 1745 to revise that work rejected this product with the remark that
an arcanum was not a secret known only to some adept, but was simply
a medicine which produces its effect by some hidden property. (This
might be said of many medicines now as well as then.) They recognised,
however, that “Paracelsus, whose supercilious ignorance merits our
scorn and indignation,” did use the term in the sense of a secret
remedy.
The Pharmacy of Paracelsus is so frequently referred to in other
sections of this book that it is not necessary to deal with it here
at greater length. It is evident, however, that some of the formulas
he devised, some of the names he coined, and some of the theories he
advanced have entered into our daily practice; and even the dogmas
now obsolete which are sometimes quoted to show how superior is our
knowledge to his, served to quicken thought and speculation.