1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 3 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. This is a topic 4 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: that actually came up on another show that I work 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: on occasionally called Our Skin. And here's the thing. I 6 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: was trying to do calendar math and it hurt my 7 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:31,880 Speaker 1: heart in my brain because I can't figure out when 8 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: that one is coming out in relation to when this, 9 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,400 Speaker 1: so we'll come out listen. I'm not the boss of 10 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:39,199 Speaker 1: the schedule on that one, so I don't know what's 11 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:43,560 Speaker 1: going on. But there's no overlap other than the mention 12 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:45,879 Speaker 1: of the doctrine of signatures and a little bit of 13 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: talk about it. But it ended up being a thing 14 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: where I was like, you know, we should probably talk 15 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 1: about that because I don't know that we have and 16 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 1: there's some things and then this ended up being a 17 00:00:56,240 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 1: lot about Paracelsus because he is important in the history 18 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:04,800 Speaker 1: of medicine. He's mentioned in a lot of our previous episodes. 19 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:09,399 Speaker 1: There hasn't really been an episode focused on him, and 20 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: his life was super interesting. He was a very rebellious 21 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:18,040 Speaker 1: person who was very frustrated with established medical practice and academia, 22 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: and he was sometimes on the lamb because of his beliefs, 23 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: which is pretty fun. I love that if you read 24 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:26,840 Speaker 1: biographies of him, it's like and then he spent a 25 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: period of wandering, But then other accounts will be more 26 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: detailed and be like, oh, yeah, he got kicked out 27 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: and the one he was on the run and then 28 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:37,399 Speaker 1: or not even in some cases, like we mentioned one 29 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,199 Speaker 1: in this episode where he was actually wanted for a rest, 30 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 1: but in others it was just like everybody's real sicking 31 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 1: you paracels, you might want to get out of town. 32 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: But so I ended up very much down the rabbit 33 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: hole of him because he is one of the people 34 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:58,240 Speaker 1: who really really set up this idea of signatures. He's 35 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: not the first to have the idea, but he really 36 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: expounded on it. He wrote a lot about it, and 37 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,520 Speaker 1: so it makes sense to talk about him right alongside 38 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:09,800 Speaker 1: the doctrine of signatures. So today we are going to 39 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: talk about his life and work, specifically as it related 40 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:20,440 Speaker 1: to the doctrine of signatures. Before we humans understood the 41 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: science behind how the body functioned, which I mean that's 42 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: something we are still figuring out, but before we really 43 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 1: had the concept of things like evidence based medicine. There 44 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,880 Speaker 1: was the doctrine of signatures, and that name makes it 45 00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:37,799 Speaker 1: sound like a book or a tract. Of course, there 46 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 1: have been books and tracks written about it, but that's 47 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,800 Speaker 1: not anything physical. It's a concept. The idea is that 48 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: you can intuit the things from nature that might heal 49 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:51,520 Speaker 1: a given medical problem by finding ways in which those 50 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: items from the natural world resembled the ailing part of 51 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: the body. So the signature of a plant in this 52 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 1: ideology is in its physical presentation. And as to where 53 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,919 Speaker 1: all of this began, it's almost impossible to pinpoint. We'll 54 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:12,360 Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about some theories later, but 55 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: for one, this concept of a plant's appearance giving a 56 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,480 Speaker 1: clue as to its possible use kind of sprang up 57 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:23,519 Speaker 1: in multiple world cultures over the centuries. And a second 58 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:25,840 Speaker 1: problem in tracing the roots of this idea lies in 59 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 1: the fact that this was the type of information that 60 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:31,920 Speaker 1: typically was passed down through oral tradition by people who 61 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: may have been considered healers in their communities, but not 62 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: necessarily doctors or any other profession that would have routinely 63 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: made notes about their work. There were occasional mentions of it. 64 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 1: Diascorides wrote in the first century CE quote the herb 65 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: Scorpius resembles the tale of the scorpion and is good 66 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: against his biting. That is a classic example of the 67 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: type of association that was being used to identify what 68 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:02,520 Speaker 1: people believed might treat a problem in the Western world. 69 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: Sixteenth century physician Paracelsus is often invoked as perhaps not 70 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: the originator of this concept, but certainly a proponent of it, 71 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,599 Speaker 1: and also as somebody who codified it. That, like the 72 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: terminology of signatures, kind of comes about or around his lifetime. 73 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: We'll kind of set the stage by talking about him 74 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:32,839 Speaker 1: and his work. Paracelsus was born Philippus Ariolus Theophrastus Bombastis 75 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: von Honheim in Eimsen and Sweden in fourteen ninety three, 76 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: and as a boy he did go by the name Theophrastus. 77 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 1: His father, villem was a doctor and a chemist, and 78 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: his mother, Elsa Oschner, died when Theophrastus was still a 79 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 1: young child. He and his father moved to Austria, where 80 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: his father had gotten an appointment as the town physician 81 00:04:55,320 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 1: for Villac. There Theophrastus was educated in metal ma with 82 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:03,479 Speaker 1: the intention that as he matured, he would work in 83 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: an administrative role in the mining industry of Villac, Austria. 84 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,719 Speaker 1: So keep in mind this education, of course, would have 85 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: been a bit misguided. At the time, the idea of 86 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: transmutation of base metals into gold was still considered a 87 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:22,160 Speaker 1: viable possibility, and people also believe that metals grew underground, 88 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:25,599 Speaker 1: kind of like plants. But what the Ephrastus noticed was 89 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 1: that a lot of the people who worked in the 90 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:31,880 Speaker 1: mines also had medical problems. The Ephrastus did not go 91 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,840 Speaker 1: into the mining business, although that education would come into 92 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: play later. He went to the University of Vienna starting 93 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,960 Speaker 1: in fifteen oh nine and studied math there as well 94 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: as astrology and medicine. After a year, which was considered 95 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: a completion of his coursework, he moved to the University 96 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: of Ferrara in Italy to get a medical degree. From 97 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: the age of fourteen, he knew he was called to 98 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 1: a life in medicine, and he chose the name Paracelsus 99 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: around fifteen sixteen, shortly after graduating. This offers an indication 100 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: that he intended to build on the work of Roman 101 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:13,200 Speaker 1: physician Alice Cornelius Celsus, who lived in the first century 102 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:18,359 Speaker 1: both BCE and CE. He also started kind of wandering 103 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: Europe in search of more knowledge, and this was not 104 00:06:21,839 --> 00:06:25,800 Speaker 1: entirely uncommon at the time. There had been an explosion 105 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: of universities in the Middle Ages, and the printing press 106 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:32,880 Speaker 1: had been invented several decades earlier, and as a consequence, 107 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: this was a time when a lot of young thinkers 108 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: kind of chose to sample from multiple schools to gain 109 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,200 Speaker 1: a broad knowledge base and also kind of seek a 110 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: place that felt right to maybe settle down and started life. 111 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: Theophrasis spent time at many universities throughout Germany, Austria, and Italy, 112 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:53,359 Speaker 1: but he came away finding the educations that they offered 113 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 1: pretentious and unsatisfying. He famously wrote, I wonder how the 114 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: high colleges managed to so many high asses. Paracelsus also 115 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:08,920 Speaker 1: found schools to be pretty useless for getting an education 116 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:13,560 Speaker 1: for the medical vocation. He felt that a university setting 117 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: just didn't offer all the information that a doctor would 118 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: actually need in their day to day practice, so he 119 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 1: sought out other sources of information, and he came to 120 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: the conclusion that he could learn more from everyday people 121 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: who dealt with maladies as part of their lives than 122 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:33,680 Speaker 1: he could from academics. He mentions in his writings speaking 123 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: with old wives, sorcerers, travelers, innkeepers, monks, barbers, alchemists, and 124 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: even gangs of bandits to learn what practices they found 125 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 1: to be beneficial. In fifteen twenty four, he returned to 126 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,880 Speaker 1: Villac to visit his father before moving north to Salzburg. 127 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: That was where he planned to start practicing medicine, but 128 00:07:56,880 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 1: his plan in Salzburg got derailed by the German peasants. 129 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 1: This event could be its own episode, but for the 130 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:08,280 Speaker 1: purposes of context for Paracelsus. In this uprising, peasants formed 131 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:11,560 Speaker 1: armies to fight against the aristocracy, which was having its 132 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 1: own conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. But the moves 133 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 1: that the aristocracy was making for its own benefit were 134 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: only going to hurt the peasant class, and it would 135 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:23,880 Speaker 1: actually push them from the status of vassals having some 136 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: ownership of the land to more of a debt bondage 137 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:31,720 Speaker 1: serfdom position. And given what we said about Paracelsus already, 138 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,120 Speaker 1: it's probably no surprise to anyone that he sided with 139 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:38,520 Speaker 1: the peasants. But the peasants were really not equipped to 140 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:42,320 Speaker 1: fight a war, and the aristocracy quickly defeated them, killing 141 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,559 Speaker 1: and estimated one hundred thousand people in the process, although 142 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: some estimates put that number a good bit higher. And 143 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:52,880 Speaker 1: Paracelsus survived this conflict, but because of his alliance to 144 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 1: the peasants, there was a warrant out for his arrest, 145 00:08:55,720 --> 00:09:00,240 Speaker 1: and so he fled Salzburg. This war came up in 146 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: our episode on Goods of the Iron Hand, which I 147 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 1: only remembered just now as we are sitting here, even 148 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: though that is an episode that I researched and wrote. 149 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: So if you want more about that, you can go 150 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: listen to the Goots of the Iron Hand episode. We'll 151 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 1: pick up more with Paracelsus's life after this uprising after 152 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:35,959 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. After fleeing Salzburg, Paracelsis lived in Strasburg 153 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:39,280 Speaker 1: for a while before moving on to Basel, Switzerland, and 154 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:42,120 Speaker 1: in Basil he had several successes that would help to 155 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: establish his reputation as a doctor. First, he treated a 156 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: man named Johann Froben for an infection in his leg 157 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 1: that threatened that limb's future. It was believed before Paracelsus 158 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:58,440 Speaker 1: got involved that the only real option was amputation, but 159 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:01,319 Speaker 1: Paracelsis was able to so gave the leg by clearing 160 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: up that infection and helping it heal. It is not 161 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:08,480 Speaker 1: entirely clear how he did this. Boy, am I curious though, 162 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:12,080 Speaker 1: me too. I have a theory we can talk about 163 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:14,559 Speaker 1: on behind the scenes. But it's not a treatment I 164 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:19,840 Speaker 1: would wish on anybody, all right. His next case involved 165 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:24,480 Speaker 1: a friend of Froben named Erasmus. Erasmus had an advanced 166 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:28,599 Speaker 1: case of gout, and for this Paracelsus gave him laudanum. 167 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:34,640 Speaker 1: Some people say Paracelsus actually invented laudanum, although his exact 168 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,679 Speaker 1: recipe for it is unknown. It may differ from the 169 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:41,559 Speaker 1: modern definition of what laudanum is, which is a tincture 170 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:45,960 Speaker 1: composed of a ten percent solution of opium powder dissolved 171 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:51,560 Speaker 1: in a high alcohol by volume spirit. Louddum is not 172 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:55,319 Speaker 1: a cure for anything, although it is a very high 173 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:58,720 Speaker 1: dose pain reliever, so high dosed that a part of 174 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:02,040 Speaker 1: their symptoms include pain, especially, they might think they have 175 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:07,160 Speaker 1: been cured, even though laudanum doesn't cure gout. Erasmus was 176 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: declared cured, and Paracelsus was soon given the job of 177 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:15,000 Speaker 1: town doctor in Basle, and in that role he quickly 178 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: used his status to share his opinions on the medical 179 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,599 Speaker 1: practice that had preceded him and just the medical establishment. 180 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:25,960 Speaker 1: In June of fifteen twenty seven, he distributed handbills that 181 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 1: he was going to give a public speech, and when 182 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:32,840 Speaker 1: that day came, Paracelsus appeared in a black robin hat 183 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,880 Speaker 1: with red golden trim, carrying a staff and sword, and 184 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,480 Speaker 1: he had an assistant with him who was carrying two 185 00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:43,240 Speaker 1: large books. So this particular day of this speech was 186 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:47,120 Speaker 1: a day when Basil traditionally had a large public bonfire 187 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:50,000 Speaker 1: as part of the celebration of the Feast of Saint John. 188 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:52,920 Speaker 1: That fire was part of a university event that they 189 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:56,520 Speaker 1: apparently had every year, and at this point Paracelsus taught 190 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:59,920 Speaker 1: at the university. It fell under his duties as Basil 191 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:04,280 Speaker 1: town physician. He sort of showboted for a moment before 192 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:08,040 Speaker 1: the crowd, and then Paracelsus reportedly threw off his hat 193 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:12,000 Speaker 1: and robe, broke his staff and threw the sword on 194 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 1: the ground, saying that a doctor should appear before patients, 195 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:19,920 Speaker 1: not in fancy clothes and adornment, but with knowledge. Then 196 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:22,400 Speaker 1: he threw one of the books on the fire, saying 197 00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:25,959 Speaker 1: that was Galen. A second book went on to the fire, 198 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:30,280 Speaker 1: and he said that was Avicenna. We've talked about Avicenna 199 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:33,640 Speaker 1: on the show also called Ibensina, back in twenty fourteen. 200 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 1: Paracelsus then continued this very scathing critique quote old bloodless words, 201 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:46,600 Speaker 1: vain mouthings of ignorance, Latin sounds meaning nothing from these books. 202 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:49,840 Speaker 1: Your doctors get their Latin for diseases they know nothing about, 203 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:53,920 Speaker 1: and their Greek for diseases they never heard of. Gray 204 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:59,520 Speaker 1: bearded frauds, old wormy, moth eaten sophists, lousy pretenders, with 205 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:03,400 Speaker 1: their fire closed, their long steps, their Latin to hide 206 00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:06,800 Speaker 1: their ignorance. They cling to the rich like leeches and 207 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:10,120 Speaker 1: let the poor die like flies. When there is a 208 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:14,040 Speaker 1: real disease, they fly from it, afraid for their reputations. 209 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: Paracelsus also stated that the various cures that were frequently 210 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:22,640 Speaker 1: used just caused more problems than the disease they were 211 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:25,160 Speaker 1: meant to address, and that all of this was about 212 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:31,079 Speaker 1: getting money, often from people who were being given false hope. 213 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,160 Speaker 1: As you can imagine this presentation did not go over 214 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:37,840 Speaker 1: well with any of his colleagues. He had at that 215 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:41,440 Speaker 1: point publicly sought to discredit not only his employers, but 216 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:44,720 Speaker 1: also his peers in academia. And while his push to 217 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:47,040 Speaker 1: learn from and care from the common people of the 218 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:50,440 Speaker 1: city seems very much like a feel good moment, it 219 00:13:50,559 --> 00:13:54,600 Speaker 1: was also deeply rooted in his own ego. So of 220 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:57,720 Speaker 1: course he was correct to reject the belief put forth 221 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:00,520 Speaker 1: by Galen that the body was composed of for us 222 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:03,280 Speaker 1: and that an imbalance in those humors was the source 223 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:06,320 Speaker 1: of disease. Like he was rejecting things that were not 224 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 1: founded in science. Uh, And he was extolling the virtues 225 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:13,319 Speaker 1: of looking to nature and the common people for cures. 226 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:16,720 Speaker 1: But he was also pretty clear that he understood all 227 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 1: of that way better than anyone else possibly could. Yeah, 228 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:26,240 Speaker 1: this is like such a similar attitude to like the 229 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:30,760 Speaker 1: wellness industry today saying established doctors know nothing, we have 230 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: all the answers. Uh huh. Like this was the same, 231 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: the same thing kind of playing out centuries ago. Additionally, 232 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,880 Speaker 1: this meant that he considered things like fairies to be real, 233 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:48,480 Speaker 1: and that different varieties of those fairies corresponded to the 234 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:56,000 Speaker 1: elements of earth, water, air, and fire, those being respectively, gnomes, undines, sylphs, 235 00:14:56,120 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: and salamanders. He explained that these elementals were soulless spirits 236 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:04,480 Speaker 1: that were living in the matrices of each element, and 237 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 1: he wrote a lot about these entities and their lifestyles. 238 00:15:08,480 --> 00:15:11,960 Speaker 1: He wrote so much, and I was reviewing so much 239 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:14,400 Speaker 1: that I was like having a hard time picking what 240 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: I wanted to share. But this tickled me, So here 241 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 1: we go of nomes, he wrote, quote, the lot of 242 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 1: man is very hard. To hope or to wish will 243 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,640 Speaker 1: profit him nothing, and he must work for all he wants. 244 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,880 Speaker 1: But the nomes have whatever they seek without any labor 245 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,480 Speaker 1: in getting or preparing it. Concerning their day and night, 246 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,320 Speaker 1: they're sleeping and waking hours, the case is exactly the 247 00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:39,680 Speaker 1: same with them as with men. Moreover, they have a 248 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:42,720 Speaker 1: sun and a firmament, no less than we have. That is, 249 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:46,200 Speaker 1: the gnomes have the earth, which is their chaos. This 250 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,320 Speaker 1: is to them only as our atmosphere. It is not 251 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:52,800 Speaker 1: as earth to them in our sense. Hence, it follows 252 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,160 Speaker 1: that they see through the earth just as we do 253 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: through the air, and the sun shines for them through 254 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: the earth as it does for us through the air, 255 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:02,560 Speaker 1: for they have the sun, the moon, and the whole 256 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:06,560 Speaker 1: firmament before their eyes. So the four humors are bad, 257 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: but y'all gnomes are real, and we need no mention. 258 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: Four humors are bad, but four types of fairies are good. 259 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: This whole idea of four earthly elements was grounded in alchemy. 260 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:24,680 Speaker 1: That was something that as a boy he had studied 261 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:27,920 Speaker 1: with his father and with other teachers. He also thought 262 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 1: that ghosts were real, explaining them as sort of echoes 263 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,160 Speaker 1: of a human trapped on the earthly realm for a 264 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: while after death. I feel like this is still a 265 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:41,320 Speaker 1: common way that people talk about ghosts. He was groundbreaking 266 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: for his time, but also working with some really non 267 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:48,720 Speaker 1: scientific ideas by modern standards. He also advocated that many 268 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 1: of the spirits that the church had characterized as bad 269 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,840 Speaker 1: were just these elementals, and they were scientific, and this too, 270 00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:00,880 Speaker 1: ruffled a lot of feathers in academic circles. He seems 271 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:04,640 Speaker 1: to have been really at odds with just about everybody 272 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,320 Speaker 1: in the town who could have been considered a professional colleague. 273 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:11,919 Speaker 1: So cut to fifteen twenty eight, by which point it 274 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:14,199 Speaker 1: was pretty clear that it was time for Paracelsus to 275 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:18,040 Speaker 1: leave Basel. He did not settle down for several years, 276 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:21,880 Speaker 1: and he kept moving around, in part because people would 277 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,880 Speaker 1: get real tired of him. But he was also returning 278 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: to the habit of his earlier years, where he kind 279 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,600 Speaker 1: of traveled and studied, although at this time he was 280 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:35,000 Speaker 1: not stopping in for study at universities. He instead observed 281 00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: real people and their medical issues, and he also, it 282 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:42,520 Speaker 1: seems worked as or shadowed a field medic for the 283 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,520 Speaker 1: Venetian Army, and all of this falls in line with 284 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:49,159 Speaker 1: his frequently quoted line of writing, a doctor must be 285 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:54,760 Speaker 1: a traveler. Knowledge is experience. During these years he wrote 286 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 1: about a treatment for syphilis, as well as his theory 287 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:03,760 Speaker 1: on the origin of syphilis. We know what causes syphilis today, 288 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:07,000 Speaker 1: but its exact origins on Earth are still not known. 289 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:11,080 Speaker 1: He believed that this had originated as a result of 290 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,879 Speaker 1: sexual intercourse between a sex worker who had gonorrhea and 291 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:19,159 Speaker 1: a person with leprosy. This belief in the origin of 292 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:24,720 Speaker 1: syphilis probably explains his proposal to treat syphilis with mercury, 293 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 1: which was also being used to treat leprosy. Paracelsus wrote 294 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:32,120 Speaker 1: about this treatment in fifteen thirty and it was used 295 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:36,520 Speaker 1: for centuries. This is probably because it did appear in 296 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:40,879 Speaker 1: some cases to eliminate the disease, but modern medical experts 297 00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:44,280 Speaker 1: and historians suspect that this was actually the result of 298 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,280 Speaker 1: observing syphilis going into a dormant period, which is something 299 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: that it naturally does. And there were certainly patients who died. 300 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,440 Speaker 1: Their deaths were chalked up to the disease, but it's 301 00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:00,880 Speaker 1: just as likely that they died of mercury poisoning. In 302 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:05,280 Speaker 1: his traveling years, Paracelsus also wrote what would become probably 303 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:10,200 Speaker 1: his most well known work. This was Der grozen Wundertzne. 304 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:13,359 Speaker 1: It's a great surgery book. I probably butchered that German 305 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 1: that was published in fifteen thirty six, and this was 306 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:20,600 Speaker 1: based on his time working with military units and treating wounds, 307 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:24,119 Speaker 1: as well as observing how soldiers manage their own care. 308 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,159 Speaker 1: And then we get to his writings on hermetic chemistry. 309 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:32,480 Speaker 1: Hermeticism references the writings of a man the Greeks called 310 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:39,840 Speaker 1: Hermes Trismagistos, the Egyptian god Toth. Those writings examine astrology, 311 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: the occult, theology, and philosophy, and there's a whole section 312 00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:48,359 Speaker 1: of Paracelsus's Hermetic Chemistry writings called concerning the Signature of 313 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:53,240 Speaker 1: Natural Things. So this writing is not only about medicine. 314 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:58,000 Speaker 1: It talks about what the signature of things is. Paracelsus 315 00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: explained that in his there are only three signators, Man, Archaos, 316 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,120 Speaker 1: and the stars, and Archaeus is a term that he 317 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,919 Speaker 1: used to describe the vital principle that's responsible for the 318 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 1: growth and continuation of all living things. So, in a 319 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,080 Speaker 1: very boiled down sense, that's what he's calling the natural world. 320 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,000 Speaker 1: And there's a lot of talk in this writing about 321 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,800 Speaker 1: the ways that people can choose to signify themselves, i e. 322 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:28,200 Speaker 1: How they present publicly through dress and presentation, and all 323 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,000 Speaker 1: of this really is him setting up this idea that 324 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:33,840 Speaker 1: you can tell a lot about a person or a 325 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:37,640 Speaker 1: thing by simply looking at it. This is a problem. 326 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:40,960 Speaker 1: As an example, quote, black eyes not only denote a 327 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,920 Speaker 1: healthy constitution, but also, for the most part, a constant mind, 328 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,439 Speaker 1: free from doubt and fear, healthy and hearty, truthful and 329 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 1: loving virtue. Gray eyes are the sign of a crafty man, 330 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:57,679 Speaker 1: Ambiguous and inconsistent. Weak eyes denote good counsels, clever and 331 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,920 Speaker 1: profound deliberations and so on. Bright eyes, which turn up 332 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:05,720 Speaker 1: down into both sides, denote a false clever man who 333 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:11,000 Speaker 1: cannot be deceived, faithless, shirking work, desirous of ease, seeking 334 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:15,679 Speaker 1: to gain his livelihood, and laziness by gambling, usury, impurity, theft, 335 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:21,680 Speaker 1: and the like. Obviously this is nonsensical, and there are 336 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:25,600 Speaker 1: many other ways in which Paracelsus believed that a person's 337 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,959 Speaker 1: appearance could tell you about their personality and behavior. He 338 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:34,640 Speaker 1: also wrote at length about chiromancy or palm reading, as 339 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 1: though it were a hard science, and the planets and 340 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:40,960 Speaker 1: the metals that they were associated with, and even necromancy, 341 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,880 Speaker 1: and then he gets to the curatives. One, for example, 342 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:48,160 Speaker 1: is a tincture made from urine, and there's a full 343 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: recipe quote. Take old urine poured away from its deposits, 344 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: several cops of it, in which dissolve three handfuls of 345 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,960 Speaker 1: ground salt. When you have strained it, boil it and 346 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,879 Speaker 1: skim it carefully. In this again, dissolve a handful of 347 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: bruised vitriol that's sulfuric acid with two or three ounces 348 00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:12,679 Speaker 1: of bruised salt ammoniac, and then carefully skim again with 349 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,760 Speaker 1: this liquid, imbibes some filings, and boil it until it 350 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:21,480 Speaker 1: can be pulverized. The dust thus produced reverberate over a 351 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: powerful fire, continually stirring it with an iron rod, until 352 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,600 Speaker 1: it changes from its own color to another, and at 353 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: last to the hues of most brilliant violet. From this 354 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,760 Speaker 1: you can easily, with spirits of wine or distilled acetum, 355 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: draw off the tincture, and when it is extracted by 356 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,399 Speaker 1: separation of the elements, you will collect what remains at 357 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 1: the bottom of the glass. By means whereof you will 358 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:49,880 Speaker 1: be able to produce wondrous effects both within and without 359 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:54,480 Speaker 1: the body. Throughout his various writings on what he calls signatures, 360 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,880 Speaker 1: Paracelsus explains that the Earth purposely makes plants resemble other 361 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,280 Speaker 1: things to that humans can see the correct plant to 362 00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:06,240 Speaker 1: treat their illnesses, but that they don't even necessarily need 363 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:10,280 Speaker 1: to see those things, because our intuition already knows this 364 00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 1: truth without consciously seeing the signature. He wrote, quote, the 365 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,840 Speaker 1: soul does not perceive the external or internal physical construction 366 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:22,639 Speaker 1: of herbs and roots, but it intuitively perceives at once 367 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:27,760 Speaker 1: their signatum. His idea gleaned from speaking with everyday people, 368 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,399 Speaker 1: and which was expounded upon by scientists that followed. Was 369 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 1: it like if you find a plant with a kidney 370 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,680 Speaker 1: shaped leaf, that it would be useful in treating ailments 371 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: of the kidneys. We should note, though, that this line 372 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:43,520 Speaker 1: of treatment, as outlined by Paracelsus is often a bit 373 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,199 Speaker 1: more indirect than simply consuming a plant that you see. 374 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:51,080 Speaker 1: Because he loved his lab work, sometimes he worked things 375 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,720 Speaker 1: into a tincture, such as that long process with urine 376 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:59,080 Speaker 1: that we just described. He treated plague in a similar way, 377 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:03,200 Speaker 1: using my minute amounts of the patient's excrement and preparing 378 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:07,240 Speaker 1: a medicine for them. Allegedly he cured a number of 379 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,239 Speaker 1: people this way. Yeah, I would like to see the 380 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:15,360 Speaker 1: notes on that. Paracelsus's end is actually a little bit 381 00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: of a mystery. We know that he died in Salzburg, Germany, 382 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,600 Speaker 1: on September twenty fourth, fifteen forty one, at the age 383 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:25,000 Speaker 1: of forty eight, but exactly how that happened has been 384 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:29,880 Speaker 1: relayed in consistently in various accounts through the years. However 385 00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:32,479 Speaker 1: it happened, it does appear that it was relatively sudden, 386 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:35,480 Speaker 1: so in one account he is said to have died 387 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,520 Speaker 1: in the kitchen of an inn that he was staying at. 388 00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:41,240 Speaker 1: Sometimes references that he was sitting on a bench near 389 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:46,000 Speaker 1: the stove and just passed away. Another also mentions the inn, 390 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,880 Speaker 1: which is the White Horse Inn, and that account says 391 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,400 Speaker 1: he died in his bed there after a sudden illness 392 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:54,959 Speaker 1: that came on that he had for a few days. 393 00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:57,919 Speaker 1: And then there is another version that can kind of 394 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,760 Speaker 1: build on these two scenarios suggest that the suddenness of 395 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: his death or illness was because he had perhaps been 396 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:08,520 Speaker 1: poisoned by an assassin hired by a fellow physician, or 397 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:12,480 Speaker 1: group of physicians who did not like Paracelsus's shakeup of 398 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:17,120 Speaker 1: their profession. We will talk about the doctrine of signatures 399 00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:21,399 Speaker 1: after Paracelsus in just a moment, but first we'll hear 400 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:34,320 Speaker 1: from the sponsors that keep the show going. Paracelsus's death 401 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:37,639 Speaker 1: was hardly the end of his work. His writings on 402 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,359 Speaker 1: signatures had a life of their own. And also he 403 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:42,879 Speaker 1: did not call it the doctrine of signatures. It picked 404 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,600 Speaker 1: up that name several decades later when other people were 405 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 1: writing about it. But the other thing is he had 406 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,960 Speaker 1: written additional texts that got published posthumously, and his combination 407 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,879 Speaker 1: of science and the occult has remained alluring for a 408 00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 1: great many readers in the century since he died. Even 409 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,480 Speaker 1: people today, I find them alluuring because they're interesting, but 410 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:09,280 Speaker 1: I don't think they're science. Keep in mind too, that 411 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:13,560 Speaker 1: this time of Paracelsus's life was really a big moment 412 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,680 Speaker 1: in human history, particularly in Europe. So at the same 413 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:22,399 Speaker 1: time that Theophrastus slash Paracelsus was exploring the world of knowledge, 414 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,200 Speaker 1: the earliest voyages of Spain to North America were underway, 415 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,920 Speaker 1: and the beginning of colonization by Europeans. Da Vinci was 416 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:34,000 Speaker 1: painting his masterpieces, Michelangelo was just starting his career, and 417 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:36,879 Speaker 1: Martin Luther was about to start a big uproar in 418 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,120 Speaker 1: challenging the Catholic Church. Paracelsus was sometimes called the Luther 419 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,960 Speaker 1: of doctors, and he hated it because he was like, 420 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,160 Speaker 1: everybody hates him and wants to kill him. Please don't 421 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,639 Speaker 1: say that about me. So it is important as we 422 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,879 Speaker 1: talk about this to contextualize the work of Paracelsus in 423 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,000 Speaker 1: a world that was undergoing a lot of other massive changes. 424 00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:01,880 Speaker 1: We know that he was not the only person who 425 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: believed in this idea of the doctrine of signatures. But 426 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 1: as we mentioned earlier, the origin of this concept is unknown. 427 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:15,320 Speaker 1: There are a number of ideas related to Paracelsus's use 428 00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: of the writings of Hermes Trismagestus. There's one school of 429 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: thought that the doctrine of signatures originated in Egypt. There's 430 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,119 Speaker 1: also a theory that China is really where these concepts began, 431 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,200 Speaker 1: and that as trade routes were established with Europe in 432 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,359 Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, these ideas spread quickly. There's a whole 433 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,600 Speaker 1: other approach that takes the position that we as humans 434 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: just want to apply some sort of pattern recognition to 435 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,840 Speaker 1: the world around us in order to understand it, regardless 436 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:50,199 Speaker 1: of where we come from geographically or culturally. We're going 437 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,480 Speaker 1: to talk about that reference to Chinese origins again in 438 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:56,199 Speaker 1: just a minute. But in the West, all of this 439 00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,439 Speaker 1: kind of got rolled up under a religious ideology suggesting that, 440 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,639 Speaker 1: of course God created all of these clues in the 441 00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:06,680 Speaker 1: way things in the natural world were shaped to lead 442 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:09,480 Speaker 1: us to the right treatments. But there are of course 443 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,359 Speaker 1: problems inherent in that. For one, it hinges on the 444 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,720 Speaker 1: idea that everyone believes in the same god. Doesn't account 445 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,560 Speaker 1: for religions where there would be multiple gods. Who's responsible 446 00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:22,280 Speaker 1: for making plants shape like organs? For another, It also 447 00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,480 Speaker 1: puts humankind at the center of everything in the universe, 448 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: as though all of these things were created just for us. 449 00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: Putting all of that aside, what if two physicians were 450 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:37,879 Speaker 1: to disagree on what signature a plant had. That was 451 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,840 Speaker 1: part of the early criticism of the doctrine of signatures, 452 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:44,480 Speaker 1: which started really almost as soon as Paracelsus had started 453 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:49,320 Speaker 1: writing his long explanations of it. Flemish physician and botanist 454 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,680 Speaker 1: Ramberda Donce, sometimes called the father of botany, wrote of 455 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,440 Speaker 1: the doctrine just a couple of decades after Paracelsus's passing, 456 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:01,360 Speaker 1: saying quote, it is so changeable and uncertain that it 457 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:06,880 Speaker 1: seems absolutely unworthy of acceptance. Others followed suit over the years, 458 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:12,560 Speaker 1: including the father of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. The doctrine of 459 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: signatures persisted, though, as a guiding tool for medicine, for 460 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,840 Speaker 1: a long time. This excerpt is from the British Medical 461 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,240 Speaker 1: Journal in eighteen seventy three, and it denounces it is backward, 462 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 1: but the ongoing fascination with it is apparent quote. According 463 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: to M. Googler's recent report to the Academy of Medicine 464 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:34,520 Speaker 1: in Paris on the Chinese Materia medica, the belief in 465 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,840 Speaker 1: the specific action of drugs seems to have strongly influenced 466 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,120 Speaker 1: medical practice in China as it did but lately that 467 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:45,200 Speaker 1: of Europe. Besides, the Chinese believe, as the Europeans did 468 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,680 Speaker 1: in the Middle Ages, that the appearance of a substance 469 00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:50,120 Speaker 1: will give a clue to the services it may render 470 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:53,680 Speaker 1: to man i e. The doctrine of signatures. Thus, the 471 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:57,600 Speaker 1: luciole is recommended for affections of the visual organs. A 472 00:29:57,680 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: matter having a red root is given for a mental 473 00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:06,600 Speaker 1: Polygonum tinctorium, which yields indigo, is reputed efficacious for eruptive fevers. 474 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,640 Speaker 1: The reniform fruit of the kadsurachenensis is said to possess 475 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:15,640 Speaker 1: aphrodisiac properties, while ginseng, with its bifurcated root resembling the 476 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,720 Speaker 1: legs of a man, is looked upon as restoring virile 477 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,640 Speaker 1: powers to the sick and aged. Considerations of the same 478 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:26,240 Speaker 1: kind are doubtless the foundations of the reputation of the 479 00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: Cordyceps senensis as exciting the genital organs, that of the 480 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:34,480 Speaker 1: Bardon's parvaflora as infallible in making the nails grow. These 481 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,960 Speaker 1: are strange illusions, but they merit indulgence from those whose 482 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:42,320 Speaker 1: ancestors administered the lungwort to cure thesis, the gromwild to 483 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:46,040 Speaker 1: cure the gravel, and the carrot for the jaundice. As 484 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:51,400 Speaker 1: more rigorous methods of testing substances and recording treatment efficacy evolved, 485 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:55,120 Speaker 1: the doctritive signatures fell out of favor because so many 486 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: of the claims that had been made by its followers 487 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,720 Speaker 1: were really proven false. For the most part, the doctrine 488 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,320 Speaker 1: of signatures is seen today as a misguided or backwards thinking, 489 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 1: even if it was cutting edge science of the sixteenth century. 490 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,800 Speaker 1: But then there are instances where some of the associations 491 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,600 Speaker 1: made through it have turned out to actually be useful. 492 00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:23,720 Speaker 1: Is there a way to reconcile that some people think so? 493 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:27,920 Speaker 1: In a two thousand and seven article in Economic Botany, 494 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:32,600 Speaker 1: Bradley Bennett suggests a possible reinterpretation of the doctrine of signatures, 495 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:37,200 Speaker 1: writing quote, in traditional cultures, plant knowledge is effectively passed 496 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,040 Speaker 1: from one generation to the next through observation and oral tradition. 497 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:45,080 Speaker 1: The doctor of signatures should be reevaluated with respect to 498 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,440 Speaker 1: one its role in the discovery of medicinal plants, two 499 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: post hawk attribution of signatures, three the nature of signatures, 500 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,800 Speaker 1: and four its role as a mnemonic. So this idea 501 00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:59,800 Speaker 1: is that a plant that was found to have a 502 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:05,840 Speaker 1: benefit then could have the association of characteristics related to 503 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:09,960 Speaker 1: the illness it was treating applied to the plant retroactively 504 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 1: to sort of help people remember, Oh, that's the plant 505 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:16,680 Speaker 1: that helps me with this thing. Bennett continues later in 506 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 1: that write up, quote, a signature like beauty is in 507 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,840 Speaker 1: the eye of the beholder. In sixteen twenty eight, Gui 508 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,360 Speaker 1: de le Bross noted that it was easy to imagine 509 00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:28,800 Speaker 1: any resemblance between a plant and an animal that happened 510 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,680 Speaker 1: to be convenient. Bennett also notes later in that same 511 00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:36,840 Speaker 1: paper that quote, seeing a particular signature often requires a 512 00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: vivid imagination. As a PostScript, we really haven't included a 513 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,800 Speaker 1: lot in the way of examples in this episode of 514 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,200 Speaker 1: plants that look like a human organ, and then people 515 00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:51,840 Speaker 1: might use it to treat an illness related to that organ. 516 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: That's on purpose, because there are still people who want 517 00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,880 Speaker 1: to apply this method. When I was in massage school, 518 00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: I had an herbal medicine teacher who brought them up repeatedly. 519 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,360 Speaker 1: We are not gonna feed into that. Yeah. I also 520 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:11,960 Speaker 1: in an age when things get scrubbed and reported to 521 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 1: people as though it's real, threw AI out of context. 522 00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: We're not going to offer anything that might help that, right, 523 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,959 Speaker 1: because I don't want anybody to get hurt. So that 524 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:28,600 Speaker 1: is the doctorate of signatures and Paracelsus for today. I 525 00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,160 Speaker 1: have sewing email which makes me great in my heart. 526 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,800 Speaker 1: This email is from Sarah and it makes me so 527 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:37,880 Speaker 1: happy and it involves one of the cutest dogs in 528 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,040 Speaker 1: the world. Sarah writes, I am in my seventies. I 529 00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 1: started sewing when I was probably eleven. Sewed lots of 530 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,560 Speaker 1: clothes for myself as a teenager, including a pantsuit alongside 531 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,360 Speaker 1: my best friend, sewing hers. We wore them to see 532 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,160 Speaker 1: the monkeys at the Hollywood Bowl, just in case we 533 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:57,200 Speaker 1: might meet them. I sewed my wedding dress and lots 534 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,680 Speaker 1: of clothes for my kids. I loved the folk patterns 535 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:02,480 Speaker 1: at that time. That was a brand. By the way, 536 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:06,680 Speaker 1: when my creative daughter showed interest in sewing. She issued patterns. 537 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 1: She created all kinds of interesting things, including complex wallets 538 00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: and purses, just making them up for herself. So fast 539 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:16,759 Speaker 1: forward to the present. I was so excited to hear 540 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 1: your shows on sewing patterns. They were fascinating. And then 541 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 1: a couple of days later, my daughter, her wife and 542 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:25,040 Speaker 1: I started watching The Great British Sewing Bee and guess 543 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:28,280 Speaker 1: what they talked about in the first episode, sewing pattern history. 544 00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,800 Speaker 1: I was yelping with delight repeatedly while watching the segment. 545 00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:34,960 Speaker 1: So fun when worlds collide like that and make sparkles. 546 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:38,760 Speaker 1: Thank you for a fascinating topic well covered. This is Luna, 547 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: our rescue from taiwan dog. She is a Taiwanese Mountain 548 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,600 Speaker 1: dog cross and the sweetest dog ever. She adores her 549 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,160 Speaker 1: family and worries until we all six of us in 550 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:51,360 Speaker 1: the house are back home. This dog is so cute. 551 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 1: It's a sweet little black pup and she has white 552 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:58,400 Speaker 1: sprinkles on her paws and oh, she's really really cute, 553 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:01,239 Speaker 1: and she's hugging a lamb me and it's really adorable. 554 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 1: And then there's Bonus Kitty. This is Mercury one of 555 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,640 Speaker 1: our three Humane Society kitties. He is pretty wild and 556 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:11,319 Speaker 1: so much fun. He's also beautiful. This also worked out 557 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:13,359 Speaker 1: because Mercury came up in the episode, and I'm gonna 558 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:15,720 Speaker 1: talk about it in behind the Scenes on Friday. Okay, 559 00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:19,000 Speaker 1: we are so thankful Sarah for you sharing this. I'm 560 00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,720 Speaker 1: glad you like the sewing patterns episode. I always worry 561 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,040 Speaker 1: when it's very much in my super Nietzschee interests. But 562 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:26,719 Speaker 1: it might not be for everyone, but I'm glad it's 563 00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:28,960 Speaker 1: for some people. If you would like to write to us, 564 00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:32,080 Speaker 1: you can do so at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. 565 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:35,080 Speaker 1: You can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio 566 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 1: app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff 567 00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,720 Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 568 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:50,640 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 569 00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:53,160 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.