Paracelsus:
Paracelsus was a German-Swiss Renaissance alchemist and doctor.
Birth:
November 11, 1493 in Einsiedeln, Switzerland
Death:
September 24, 1541 in Salzburg, Austria
Claim to Fame:
Paracelsus was born Phillip von Hohenheim, and later became Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim. He was a German-Swiss Renaissance alchemist and doctor who believed medical training should be based on observations and experience and replaced many herbal remedies with chemical substitutes. He believed illnesses had external causes instead of unbalances in the bodily humours. He took on the name Paracelsus to show he was 'greater than Celsus', the Roman doctor that wrote the authoritative encyclopedia on medicine. He gained fame after he published his Die grosse Wundartznei (The Great Surgery Book).
