Person
Paracelsus
Science & Health
Philosophy & EthicsWho is Paracelsus in the Agency editorial?
Paracelsus was a Swiss physician and alchemist of the sixteenth century, known for the maxim that the dose makes the poison. Issue.26, the edition about pharmakon, presents him by his full name, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, and says that one of the founding ideas of modern pharmacology came from him.
In short
Paracelsus was a Swiss physician and alchemist of the sixteenth century, who died in 1541. In the Agency editorial he appears only in Issue.26, the edition about pharmakon, in the author's prose. The edition says one of the founding ideas of modern pharmacology came from a Swiss physician with the most bombastic name, gives the full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, and then the nickname Daddy Paracelsus. A portrait follows. The author writes that people now call him a mere alchemist, and that he argued everything is poison and nothing is without poison, and that only the dose separates the two.
Key facts
- Who was Paracelsus?
- A Swiss physician and alchemist of the sixteenth century, who died in 1541. He is known for the maxim that the dose makes the poison.
- Where does the Agency editorial name Paracelsus?
- Only in Issue.26, in the section 26.2 Remedy as Pharmakon: once by his full name and once as Daddy Paracelsus, both in the author's prose, followed by a portrait.
- What idea does Issue.26 attribute to him?
- That everything is poison and nothing is without poison, and that only the dose separates the two. The edition calls it one of the founding ideas of modern pharmacology.
Who was Paracelsus?
Paracelsus is the name by which the Swiss physician and alchemist Theophrastus von Hohenheim is known. He worked in the sixteenth century and died in 1541. The maxim that the dose makes the poison is associated with him. The edition itself calls him a Swiss physician of the sixteenth century; the year of death and the label of alchemist as a card fact come from outside the edition and are marked for verification.
How does Paracelsus appear in Issue.26?
Issue.26 introduces him after the passage about Socrates and the hemlock. The author writes that one of the founding ideas of modern pharmacology came in the sixteenth century from a Swiss physician with the most bombastic name, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, and adds the nickname Daddy Paracelsus. A portrait follows, with a caption that calls him a bombastic doctor and credits the image as a portrait after Quentin Matsys.
The author then writes that nowadays people call him a mere alchemist, but that he paved most of the way to the medicine box people have at home today. According to the edition, he argued that everything is poison and nothing is without poison, and that only the dose separates the two. From this the author concludes that no substance is a cure or a poison by nature, and mentions the therapeutic index that pharmacologists use today.
Source editions
Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.