Aqueous extractions - a general reading

[bi3mw]

A few thoughts on Paracelsus' alchemy: I once tried to link this "herbalist branch" to people before Paracelus, but I was unsuccessful. Paracelsus' thinking certainly did not arise out of nothing, but the approach as such can be described as revolutionary in a certain way. Palacelsus' education was already atypical for his time. Instead of just attending the "first available" university, he embarked on an eight-year journey through Europe and slowly developed his own medical view. He fundamentally rejected the Galenic teachings. However, magic and astronomy also played a major role. Throughout his life, Paracelsus was an outsider in the medical profession. He was despised by many of his colleagues but revered by his patients because of his successes. Experience in professional practice and not theoretical medicine was always the benchmark for him. He developed his recipes, tinctures and treatment methods on this basis. This is also where alchemy comes into play. In his countless writings, Paracelsus built up a cryptic and complex world of ideas in which he defined illnesses as a disorder of the alchemical-chemical processes in the body. According to Paracelsus, these are based on the three basic principles of which humans are also made: Mercurius (mercury), sulphur (sulphur) and sal (salt). And if the basic principles were to become disordered, then diseases would arise. This alchemical principle can in fact be attributed exclusively to Paracelsus and, as far as I know, has no known predecessors. Therefore, one can only speak of proto-Parcelsism to a limited extent.