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Traditional Chinese drug therapy.
More than 4,000 years old, traditional Chinese medicine continues to be widely practiced in China and in western countries. Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that good health is the result of harmony and balance between five basic elements: earth, water, fire, wood and metal. Also important to health are the two types of energy Yin and Yang, constituting a vital substance that circulates through the body. Drug therapy has been one of the means used in Chinese medicine to keep these elements and the flow of energy in balance. Many of the same herbs used thousands of years ago in China could be the source of new pharmaceuticals in Western medicine.
The double pelican (a cautionary tale).
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[Textual research on Dan Fang Jing Yuan (Mirror origin from alchemical chambre), an alchemical herbology].
Having made a textual research on the relation between the two editions of Dan Fang Jing Yuan of Zheng Tong Dao Zang and Zheng Lei Ben Cao, we consider the materials quoted by the latter to be derived from the three-volume Dan Fang Jian Yuan of Dao Zang, while the Dan Fang Jing Yuan from the fourth volume of Qian Gong Jia Geng Zhi Bao Ji Cheng is in fact an apocrypha of Zheng Lei Ben Cao by Song people. The dating of the two books are also studied.
Further thoughts on the identity of "Eirenaeus Philalethes".
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The Arabic origin of Jābir's Latin works.
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[The alkahest, universal dissolvent or when theory turns an impossible practice into the imaginable].
Using again a term coined by Paracelsus, Van Helmont calls Alkahest the universal solvent able to reduce any body in its prime matter. The search for Alkahest takes up a great part of the chemical works of the second half of the seventeenth century. Simple corrosive product for some, "Philosophers' Mercury" for others, Alkahest withstands objections in spite of its absurd properties, by means of the persistence of alchemical theories in the field of chemistry.
The Ripley Scroll of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Alchemical scrolls associated with George Ripley are unusual documents which illustrate the pursuit of the Philosophers Stone. Scrolls vary from about 5 feet in length by 5 inches wide to over 20 feet long and about 3 feet wide. There are 16 scrolls in libraries in the UK and 4 in the USA. Ripley whose name is attached to the scrolls was a Canon of Bridlington in Yorkshire and lived from about 1415 to 1495. He is renowned as an alchemist and author of alchemical works in rhyme, and his verses are used on the scrolls. Some of the scrolls were produced in the 16th century, in Lübeck, probably at the request of John Dee the Elizabethan polymath. A Ripley scroll is in the library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh to which it was presented in 1707. The only published description of this scroll appeared in 1876, and it has not apparently been studied since. Interest in Ripley scrolls has grown in recent years and there have been a number of publications describing them since 1990. The Edinburgh scroll is described and is compared with the other scrolls which have been seen personally or for which detailed descriptions have been published. The origin, significance and use of Ripley Scrolls are discussed in an attempt to define their contemporary role.
A survey of chemical medicine in the 17th century: spanning court, classroom, and cultures.
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Stephanus of Alexandria; on the structure and date of his alchemical work.
On the authorship of Stephanus' of Alexandria On the great and sacred art of making gold many questions have arisen, and many scholars have in my estimation misunderstood and undervaluated it. As a commentary on selected passages of earlier alchemical texts it in fact offered an opportunity to its author to demonstrate wide rhetorical prowess, extensive learning, and significant breadth of philosophical understanding. In this article we present additional arguments in favour of Stephanus' authorship of the work; demonstrate that what was its concluding portion has been lost; indicate how two of the original lectures it contained have each been divided into two other lectures; and attempt to pin-point its exact date of composition on the basis of astronomical information it contains.
Alchemical symbols at the Museum of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University.
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[Georg Joachim Rhetikus, between Paracelsus and Copernicus].
At first the author presents the familial background of Rheticus, then his education, his friendships and scientific contacts. Rheticus was professor of university in Wittenberg and Leipzig. Most interesting were his contacts with Paracelsus and Copernicus. Last two decades of life Rheticus spent in Cracow working as a physician and mathematician. He died in Kosice.