Paracelsus
<p ><b>Paracelsus</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˌ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >p</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >æ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >r</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɛ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >l</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a>; born <b>Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim</b>, 11 November or 17 December 1493 – 24 September 1541) was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_German" title="Swiss German" >Swiss German</a><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup> Renaissance <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician" title="Physician" >physician</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botany" title="Botany" >botanist</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy" title="Alchemy" >alchemist</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology" title="Astrology" >astrologer</a>, and general <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult" title="Occult" >occultist</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-4" >[4]</a></sup> He founded the discipline of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicology" title="Toxicology" >Toxicology</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-toxsci.oxfordjournals.org_5-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-toxsci.oxfordjournals.org-5" >[5]</a></sup> He is also known as a revolutionary for insisting upon using observations of nature, rather than looking to ancient texts, in open and radical defiance of medical practice of his day.<sup id="cite_ref-toxsci.oxfordjournals.org_5-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-toxsci.oxfordjournals.org-5" >[5]</a></sup> He is also credited for giving <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc" title="Zinc" >zinc</a> its name, calling it <i>zincum</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-6" >[6]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-7" >[7]</a></sup> Modern psychology often also credits him for being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological illness.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-8" >[8]</a></sup>
His personality was stubborn and independent. He grew progressively more frustrated and bitter as he became more embattled as a reformer.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-9" >[9]</a></sup>
"Paracelsus", meaning "next (in his status as physician) to Celsus", refers to the Roman encyclopedist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aulus_Cornelius_Celsus" title="Aulus Cornelius Celsus" >Aulus Cornelius Celsus</a> from the 1st century, known for his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Medicina" title="De Medicina" >tract on medicine</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Read_10-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-Read-10" >[10]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#cite_note-11" >[11]</a></sup>
Paracelsus' most important legacy is likely his critique of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholastic_method" title="Scholastic method" class="mw-redirect" >scholastic methods</a> in medicine, science and theology. Although these faculties did not exist separate from each other during his time, his attitudes towards the uncritical copy of the teachings of the old Fathers of Medicine, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna" title="Avicenna" >Avicenna</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes" title="Averroes" >Averroes</a>, without categorically denying their obvious merits, was his first and foremost achievement for independent and empirical approaches to research and teaching. Much of his theoretical work does not withstand modern scientific thought, but his insights laid the foundation for a more dynamic approach in the medical sciences.
 
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