PubMed · 8232565
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A Abbott. 1993-11-11. Paracelsus.. https://doi.org/10.1038/366098b0
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This paper analyzes the development of the concept of alkahest from its origins in the Paracelsian corpus to its mature form in the works of Joan Baptista van Helmont (1579-1644) and his successors. Historians of science have usually focused on the chemical aspects of the alkahest, taking into account especially the claims that it was a substance capable of dissolving all kinds of matter. This paper shows the medical implications of the alkahest: it was not only a "solvent," but an important means of revealing nature's secrets and of producing medicines. The properties ascribed to the alkahest fit perfectly within Helmontian theories about matter, disease, and cure.
This article considers two paintings by the English painter, Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-97), 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump' and 'The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone' as painterly reflections on the early industrial culture. Particularly interesting in the "Experiment on a Bird" is the broad spectrum of spectator's reactions to the experiment; this can be related to the contemporary debate on the contextualization of science.
In this paper etiological and nosological concepts of the Renaissance medico, alchemist, philosopher, and theologist Theophrast von Hohenheim ("Paracelsus" (1493/94-1541)), concerning the "taubsucht [rage, fury]", the "mania", and contextual aspects, are shown. Paradigmatic oscillations between concepts of the present time and the views of Hohenheim are analyzed. Four kinds of "taubsucht" are presented by Hohenheim in his earliest psychopathologically orientated treatise "Von der Taubsucht". Their relations towards later texts are described. He introduces many disorders in later texts, e.g. "mania", "lunatici", "ebricata", "phantasmata", "vihisch vernunft", that resemble aspects of the four kinds of "taubsucht". Three main principles of etiology are documented and characterized as "theological-ethical", "elemental-sidereal", and "alchemistical". Contrary to today's preferred "descriptive" approach the main principle of Paracelsian classification is seen as "etiological-dimensional". Seven etiologic dimensions are described. Hierarchical correspondences between these dimensions are investigated. The seven dimensions are characterized as: a) Elemental influences (incorporation of psychotropic substances) b) Firmamental-sidereal influences (astrological and astronomical emanations) c) Spiritual influences (spirits deranging man's mind) d) Alchemistical ("chemical") influences e) Secondary diseases (caused by some pre-existing disorder) f) Intrinsic ethical and moral dispositions as the final cause of disorders (theological-ethical view) g) Heredity. By evaluating the paradigmatic aspects of Hohenheims nosological approach, differences with today's mainstream-views of psychiatry are seen in the field of "invisible" (spiritual and transcendental), "etiological-dimensional" explanations for the derangement of the mind (see b, c, f). Potential similarities are considered in the field of "visible" (materialistic), dimensions (see a, d, e, g). It is concluded that Hohenheim strives towards an integration of spiritual and materialistic aspects in the application of etiological and nosological tools. Hohenheims concepts are summarized as a 16th century "integrative" psychopathological approach.