1 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:09,760 Speaker 1: The rivers were rumored to be shimmering and spectacular. Archaeologists 2 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,159 Speaker 1: doubted it, though, because water ways of Mercury seemed to 3 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:15,080 Speaker 1: be more fiction than fact, but still they were curious 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: to see if these silvery rivers and other stories about 5 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: Emperor shinshi Huan's tomb were true. Shinshi Huan became China's 6 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: first emperor in two b C after six other Chinese 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: states fell to him in bloody battles. While it's true 8 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 1: that he was responsible for the deaths of untold thousands 9 00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:36,880 Speaker 1: during his tumultuous reign, he was also credited with stimulating 10 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:42,560 Speaker 1: significant cultural and intellectual advancement. He was passionate about infrastructure too. 11 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 1: Among other things, he ordered the construction of a canal 12 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: that linked the yang z and the Pearl river systems, 13 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,200 Speaker 1: and extensive network of roadways, and the creation of provinces 14 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: as well as China's Great Wall. It shouldn't surprise you 15 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: to know, then, that he also began constructing his enormous 16 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,800 Speaker 1: underground mausoleum thirty six years before his death. And when 17 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:06,040 Speaker 1: I say enormous, I really mean it. He built something 18 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: more than a grave. He created a sprawling underground compound 19 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,440 Speaker 1: the size of an American football field. Tradition tells us 20 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,520 Speaker 1: that his inner burial chamber, which has yet to be 21 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: excavated to this day, by the way, contains a scale 22 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: replica of his empire. It was something like a giant 23 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 1: dall house, a country in miniature that Shinshi Huan planned 24 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: to preside over in death. Legend tells us that he 25 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: included facsimiles of animals, laborers, stables, offices, and statues of 26 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: government officials. He ordered the creation of palaces and towers 27 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: and scenic vistas, and as I mentioned a moment ago, 28 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: it was also said that he wanted mercury rivers. For years, 29 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: scholars weren't sure if this latter wish was executed, but 30 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties researchers found that the levels of 31 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: mercury in the burial mound above the tomb were exceptionally high, 32 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:58,440 Speaker 1: potentially giving credence to the seemingly fantastical idea that man 33 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: made rivers of mercury were buried below the surface. And 34 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: when we look at the emperor and his contemporaries, they 35 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: were quite familiar with the substance mercury you see was 36 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:12,080 Speaker 1: used in several ways. In ancient China, mercury sulfide, often 37 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: called cinnabar, is bright red in color and was often 38 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: used in artwork and decorations. Mercury was also used to 39 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,959 Speaker 1: cure many common ills, from infected sores to insomnia. Because 40 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: it's the only metal that's liquid at room temperature, perhaps 41 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 1: it was natural that inquisitive minds also felt like it 42 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: might contain some sort of magical property. And that brings 43 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 1: us to another use for mercury that was long a 44 00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 1: part of Chinese tradition, alchemy. Alchemists used mercury to dissolve 45 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:42,680 Speaker 1: other metals and create amalgams that were used in things 46 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: like guilt plating, but we're also thought to have other 47 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,400 Speaker 1: broader applications. Using the Taoist concept of yin and yang, 48 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: it was suggested that cold, watery mercury and bright, fiery 49 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: gold could be blended in ideal proportions to sustain life. 50 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:59,080 Speaker 1: One legend tells of a man who extended his life 51 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: by ten thousand and years after consuming wine spiked with it. 52 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: But the first person that we understand to have definitively 53 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,239 Speaker 1: pursued the specific goal of immortality was none other than 54 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:12,920 Speaker 1: shinshi Huan. Indeed, among the many famous legacies of the 55 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: first Emperor of China was his own quest for immortality 56 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,359 Speaker 1: and the so called elixir of life, a much fabled 57 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:22,959 Speaker 1: and deeply sought after means of living forever. He sent 58 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:25,639 Speaker 1: search parties out to the far reaches of his empire, 59 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:27,800 Speaker 1: and as part of this quest, he worked a little 60 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,920 Speaker 1: closer to home too. The emperor tasked court doctors with 61 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: cooking up a number of mercurial concoctions in the hopes 62 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: of figuring out how to engineer immortality in a cauldron. 63 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:42,040 Speaker 1: He hoped, and searched and plotted for immortality. But it's 64 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: good that he planned so lavishly for the afterlife. Not 65 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: only did his mercury laced potions not grant him eternal life, 66 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: but they probably contributed to his early death. We know 67 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: now that the element is highly toxic to humans. Today, 68 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 1: the medical industry is indeed in the business of prolonging life. 69 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: A link between modern medicine and the quest for immortality 70 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:06,080 Speaker 1: is inextricable, but maybe not in the way you might 71 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: have expected. This is a story of magic and medicine. 72 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: It's a story of our ever present quest to find, 73 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: distill or create elixirs that put off death, even if 74 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: just for a while. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome to 75 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: bedside manners. Diseases come in all shapes and sizes. These days, 76 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: an average person with access to Google might be able 77 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: to do a quick search and figure out what that 78 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:43,600 Speaker 1: strange rashes or what's wrong with their tonsils. Internet access 79 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,839 Speaker 1: has made armchair experts out of many of us mere mortals, 80 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:49,839 Speaker 1: But at one time, sickness was the realm of the gods. 81 00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 1: The word that we translate to the English disease finds 82 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: its ancient origins in the idea that something is without 83 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: well being or divine favor. For thousands of years, humans 84 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: believe that gods were integral to sickness and to healing, 85 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,560 Speaker 1: both in terms of affliction and its treatments. How to 86 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: treat illness and disease has evolved over the course of 87 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: human history. Since time immemorial, humans have used a wide 88 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 1: range of natural materials like plants, minerals, and other substances 89 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 1: to treat sickness. Medicine and medicinal practitioners have existed for 90 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: far longer than we have records for. However, in the 91 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:29,240 Speaker 1: mid sixth century, BC, people began to think about the world, 92 00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: human life, and health and wellness in a very different way. 93 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:37,280 Speaker 1: On Nature, a work of prose published by Anaximander of 94 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:40,480 Speaker 1: my Leaders, proposed that the world wasn't simply created as 95 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,599 Speaker 1: a playground by the gods for the gods, but rather 96 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:46,880 Speaker 1: it was a natural entity with its own processes which 97 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:49,839 Speaker 1: were able to be studied and explained on its own terms, 98 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: apart from any reference to the god's activities. People started 99 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,159 Speaker 1: thinking more about the natural causes of sickness, if the 100 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: gods weren't to blame, than who or what us. People 101 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: began thinking about their bodies, inner workings. Disease came to 102 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: be seen as natural in origin rather than supernatural. This 103 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:10,799 Speaker 1: would lead to a lot of speculation about how natural 104 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: medicines could be used internally. The fifth century BC brought 105 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:18,360 Speaker 1: a major seismic shift. During this time, the Greeks devised 106 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: and committed to paper the idea that medicine might be 107 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,960 Speaker 1: formally defined as a craft, and thus it could be 108 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 1: systematized and practiced by formally studied crafts people. One of 109 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,840 Speaker 1: the most influential figures in this invention of medicine, as 110 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: scholars call it, was a fellow named Hippocrates, who you'll 111 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:37,679 Speaker 1: get to know a little bit more over the course 112 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: of this series. Hippocrates was highly influential, and his school 113 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 1: of thought created the Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of Greek 114 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: medical works. In general, Hippocratic medicine understood disease as an 115 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 1: internal imbalance of one of four key fluids known as 116 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:56,239 Speaker 1: the humors, and healing was concerned with restoring the balance 117 00:06:56,279 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 1: of them, largely through diets and exercise. The physician gay 118 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,040 Speaker 1: And would later appear on the scene. Building upon ideas 119 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: of those who came before him, he worked on developing 120 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:08,760 Speaker 1: a significant catalog of natural cures, most of which were 121 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: plant extracts. His recipes would be systematized as they traveled 122 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: around the world during the next several centuries. While these 123 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:18,360 Speaker 1: Greek ideas faded out in the West, they were picked 124 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: up by Arabic writers. These natural solutions gained momentum in 125 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: the East, where they were further built upon and developed, 126 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:27,960 Speaker 1: before being brought back to the West around eight hundred 127 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,000 Speaker 1: years ago in the twelfth and thirteen centuries. In the 128 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: eleventh century, for example, a Persian scholar named Albi Rooney 129 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 1: cataloged an extensive collection of medicines from Central Asia and 130 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 1: with it, he suggested that pharmacy, a term derived from 131 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:45,440 Speaker 1: the Greek word pharmacon or poison, should be considered a 132 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:48,360 Speaker 1: distinctly separate branch of the healing arts. He thought it 133 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: required its own line of study. By twelve thirty one, 134 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,480 Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Emperor signed the Constitutions of Malfi into law, 135 00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:59,640 Speaker 1: creating official legal codes around healing that extended across his empire. 136 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:03,400 Speaker 1: Formally trained physicians were deemed to be of a scholarly class, 137 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: while apothecaries, those who mixed their medicines, consisted of tradesmen. 138 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: But they continued to work closely together, dispensing cures under 139 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: a strict legal code that governed their activities. But of 140 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:17,520 Speaker 1: course there are ways to get around the rules. You see, 141 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: these laws were hard to enforce through both the Ancient 142 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,920 Speaker 1: and Renaissance worlds. From East to west, most big cities 143 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:26,920 Speaker 1: had their own apothecaries, and many of them to boot. 144 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:29,680 Speaker 1: They were small businesses, after all, they needed to make 145 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,920 Speaker 1: their ends meet. Sometimes they would take advantage of their clients, 146 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: selling them mislabeled products and jacking up the prices. They 147 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:39,800 Speaker 1: might sell old or spoiled things, and sometimes they would 148 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: knowingly sell cures that were known to be deadly in 149 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: order to turn a profit. We'll get to more of 150 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: that later in the season. But alongside the often creative apothecaries, 151 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: up sprouted another possible answer to the many ailments of 152 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:56,319 Speaker 1: the early modern world, a particular kind of craftsperson with 153 00:08:56,440 --> 00:09:01,199 Speaker 1: sometimes equally dubious concoctions. By the thirteen than fourteen centuries, 154 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,520 Speaker 1: another group was already beginning to make small waves in 155 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:08,240 Speaker 1: medical practice and theory, a group born of magic and 156 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: mysticism that brought us to medicine as we know it today. 157 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 1: The Alchemists. The apocalyptic visions kept him awake at night. 158 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:27,120 Speaker 1: John Franciscan Friar believed that the Antichrist's arrival was imminent, 159 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:29,959 Speaker 1: But though his brow was sweaty and his pulse was quick, 160 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:32,720 Speaker 1: he knew that he was ready. John believed that he 161 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:34,720 Speaker 1: was in on the secret of how to defeat the 162 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:37,439 Speaker 1: devil and his demonic army. He believed that the key 163 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:40,720 Speaker 1: lay in his knowledge of alchemy and its ability to 164 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:44,320 Speaker 1: restore health and wealth to the virtuous. So John tinkered 165 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:48,679 Speaker 1: in his workshop, preparing his potions and talking of divine revelations. 166 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: He was eventually thrown in jail by the pope for 167 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 1: his blasphemy, but John was onto something. Exactly what he 168 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,719 Speaker 1: was onto was less about the devil, though, and more 169 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: about what John had boiling over the flame. To us today, 170 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: medicine can sometimes feel like nothing short of magic. It 171 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,439 Speaker 1: has allowed the deaf to hear and the blind to see. 172 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:12,319 Speaker 1: It's made infection disappear and pain vanish. It's brought innumerable 173 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,040 Speaker 1: people back from the brink of death. And maybe we've 174 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,800 Speaker 1: all felt it in smaller ways, maybe when the doctor 175 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:20,840 Speaker 1: gives us the right antibiotics, or when our sinus is 176 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,120 Speaker 1: finally clear. At least it always feels that way to me. 177 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:27,160 Speaker 1: The origins of the chemical based medicines which we are 178 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:30,720 Speaker 1: prescribed today are very much intertwined with the philosophy and 179 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:34,800 Speaker 1: experiments of alchemy. Now, when you hear the word alchemy, 180 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:38,560 Speaker 1: you probably think about mad scientists in secret medieval labs 181 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:41,720 Speaker 1: filled with fire and smoke and glass, all cooking up 182 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: optimistic experiments and the hopes of turning lead into gold. 183 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:48,400 Speaker 1: That's the picture that movies and books tell us about, anyway, 184 00:10:48,679 --> 00:10:50,880 Speaker 1: But there's so much more to it than that. The 185 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: history and the goals of alchemy are much broader than 186 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,520 Speaker 1: I could tell you about today in this one single episode. 187 00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:59,680 Speaker 1: But throughout much of history there's been one common thread 188 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: that I'd love to tell you about, one very precious 189 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:05,920 Speaker 1: item which you might have heard of, the Philosopher's Stone. 190 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:08,760 Speaker 1: Now I should point out that the Philosopher's Stone is 191 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:11,560 Speaker 1: kind of a misleading name. The stone was rumored not 192 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: to be a stone at all, but a fine powder. 193 00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:16,800 Speaker 1: It was thought to be read or maybe white, or 194 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:20,200 Speaker 1: sometimes even purple. But whatever it looked like, alchemists believed 195 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:23,920 Speaker 1: that it was the secrets ingredient of transmutation, the ability 196 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: to transform one substance into another, to shapeshift and renew. 197 00:11:28,559 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: The ability of transmutation was considered all powerful, but no 198 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:35,560 Speaker 1: one had gotten close enough to prove it. Some claimed 199 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:38,920 Speaker 1: that this mythical substance had been given by God to Adam. 200 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: According to some legends, it was used by Noah to 201 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: create the arc, and by Moses to build the Tabernacle 202 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 1: and its vessels, by Solomon to build a temple. The alchemists, however, 203 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:51,440 Speaker 1: sought not just to find the stone, but to make 204 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:53,839 Speaker 1: the stone. You see, it was thought that the stone 205 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 1: could remove impurities and turned base things into precious things. 206 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,480 Speaker 1: It was believed that by rearranging base properties of any element, 207 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,520 Speaker 1: say in lead, it can morph into something else gold. 208 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 1: But over time the goal of alchemists evolved. It led 209 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:12,600 Speaker 1: to a fairly systemized understanding of medicine, which was chemical 210 00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:15,959 Speaker 1: at its heart. The desire to remove impurities from metal 211 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:19,400 Speaker 1: was expanded, and it was thought that disease, understood as 212 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:23,520 Speaker 1: impurity of the body, could potentially be transmuted into health 213 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:28,240 Speaker 1: and perhaps in perpetuity following along. Okay, so far, basically 214 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 1: alchemy was trying to take not so great things and 215 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: turn them into better things. Now, one of the most 216 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:37,280 Speaker 1: important alchemical methods, as it would come to bear on medicine, 217 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:40,640 Speaker 1: was the use of distillation. This was a central tool 218 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: of alchemy of any kind and one of the ways 219 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,640 Speaker 1: the alchemists hoped to extract what they called quintessence, or 220 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:51,040 Speaker 1: the fifth essence, out of simple substances like plants or minerals. 221 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: Extracting this quintessence was not exactly like reducing a substance 222 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:58,800 Speaker 1: to active ingredients, since this fifth essence was understood to 223 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:02,320 Speaker 1: be a celestial party that was dormant in earthly materials. 224 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:05,480 Speaker 1: It was thought to be incorruptible and capable of making 225 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:09,320 Speaker 1: powerful medicines which could remove any form of corruption from 226 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:13,400 Speaker 1: the body. Importantly, for the medical world, this rather esoteric 227 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:16,840 Speaker 1: process led to the very real discovery of alcohol, which 228 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,240 Speaker 1: was understood to be the quintessence of wine. Recipes from 229 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,240 Speaker 1: making alcohol started to appear in the twelfth century, and 230 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: by the next it became known as Aqua vitae the 231 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:31,040 Speaker 1: water of life. Now our Franciscan friar John of Rupeskosa 232 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,080 Speaker 1: was rumored to have been a gold making alchemist from 233 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:35,880 Speaker 1: his jail cell it seems that he was the first 234 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:39,080 Speaker 1: to propose that a kind of total panacea was attainable 235 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: by distilling not just wine, but things like herbs, animal products, 236 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:46,600 Speaker 1: and especially minerals like gold, antimony, and mercury, and then 237 00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:50,040 Speaker 1: mixing medicines from them by way of a chemical process. 238 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,840 Speaker 1: A proto chemistry, he proposed that an elixir of life 239 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,960 Speaker 1: could be attained by a careful hand and a watchful eye. 240 00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:59,880 Speaker 1: He was far ahead of his time, and he was 241 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:02,520 Speaker 1: hunished for it. But he wasn't the first, and he 242 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: certainly wasn't going to be the last. The journey had 243 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:14,920 Speaker 1: been a long one, but the doctor was no stranger 244 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: to life on the road. What followed him were stories 245 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:20,600 Speaker 1: and legend, a heady blend of fact and fiction that 246 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: is hard to parse out. He was something of a 247 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:25,120 Speaker 1: myth of his own making. But what we do know 248 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,480 Speaker 1: to be true is that he was a genius and 249 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:30,440 Speaker 1: a provocateur. But whether the story you're about to hear 250 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 1: is fact or fiction, well, I'll let you decide for yourself. 251 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:38,440 Speaker 1: As the story goes in our traveling healer was about 252 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 1: one miles from his Austrian home of English dot Germany. 253 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 1: His studies had taken him far and wide, so this 254 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:47,560 Speaker 1: short trip seemed easy by comparison. He made his way 255 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: to an end to rest for the night. His reputation 256 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:52,640 Speaker 1: preceded him, it seems, because not long after arriving, the 257 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:55,360 Speaker 1: inn's owner asked him to examine his twenty three year 258 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 1: old daughter. She had been paralyzed since birth. The doctor 259 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:01,480 Speaker 1: prepared a cure for her of something he called as 260 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:04,000 Speaker 1: off the Red Lion. It was a fancy name he 261 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 1: had given to his recipe, his own medical concoction of 262 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 1: alchemical mercury. He considered this to be universal medicine. He 263 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:13,680 Speaker 1: told her to take a pinch of the remedy with 264 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,920 Speaker 1: some wine after each meal. She will sweat profusely, he 265 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 1: told her, But that's just evidence that it's working. Soon after, 266 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:22,160 Speaker 1: the innkeepers got the shock of their life when their 267 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:25,680 Speaker 1: daughter walked into the room, having been bedridden her whole life. 268 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: It was said that she threw herself at the doctor's 269 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,800 Speaker 1: feet and gratitude. This, of course, was no ordinary doctor, 270 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:35,400 Speaker 1: no peddler of ancient theories about humors and diets. This 271 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:40,360 Speaker 1: was Theophrastus Philippus Aurelius Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known to 272 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:44,200 Speaker 1: us as Paracelsus, and he was famous, and too many 273 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:47,600 Speaker 1: he was infamous. Medicine during the Renaissance period was taught 274 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:51,240 Speaker 1: through a theory based bookish recitation of the ancient writers 275 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:56,000 Speaker 1: like Galen, rather than establishing theories through practice. Galenic doctors 276 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: would diagnose and prescribe treatments to patients, sometimes without ever 277 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 1: having seen them. This time, during which Theophrastus was born, 278 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,800 Speaker 1: was one of great general upheaval. The Renaissance birth new 279 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:10,800 Speaker 1: ideas and changed all areas of life, from economics, arts, 280 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: and religion to medicine. His mother had died early in 281 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: his life, so he was cared for by his father, 282 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:19,560 Speaker 1: who was a physician and a teacher. As a young man, 283 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:23,720 Speaker 1: Theophrastus worked briefly in Austrian silver mines, where he received 284 00:16:23,720 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 1: a basic understanding about medals and their properties. According to 285 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 1: some scholars, Theophrastis wrote under the name Paracelsus for the 286 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,800 Speaker 1: first time while in medical school around fifteen fifteen. Taking 287 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:37,640 Speaker 1: on a Greek or Latin pseudonym was customary for the 288 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: scholarly class at the time as a way to show 289 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,400 Speaker 1: affinity with ancient minds. But what we know is that 290 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 1: whatever affinity he once had for his predecessors quickly grew 291 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:50,120 Speaker 1: into disdain. In fact, Paracelsus spent the rest of his 292 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:52,720 Speaker 1: life working in response to them and what he saw 293 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:57,280 Speaker 1: as their deadly, misguided and classist shortcomings. The problem with 294 00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:01,000 Speaker 1: his education, Paracelsus pointed out, was that nothing should ever 295 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:04,040 Speaker 1: be so firmly established that it could not be questioned. 296 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:07,399 Speaker 1: But indeed he found the backbone of his education to 297 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:11,440 Speaker 1: be rigid on critical and silencing. Doctoring as it was 298 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:14,760 Speaker 1: taught in universities to the elite classes, was stuck in 299 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:18,480 Speaker 1: the far past. He considered Galen's humorl medicine to be 300 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:21,680 Speaker 1: nothing but charlatanism, and the folks who practiced it more 301 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:23,879 Speaker 1: eager to take money from the sick and the naive 302 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:26,520 Speaker 1: than to actually help them. He worried that anyone with 303 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:30,679 Speaker 1: the doctor's title could basically get away with murder. Times 304 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:34,639 Speaker 1: had changed, civilizations had come and gone, so had diseases 305 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:37,720 Speaker 1: and epidemics too. Wouldn't it make sense that thinking about 306 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: how to heal the body had evolved as well, and 307 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:42,400 Speaker 1: he could see how stuck in their thinking they were. 308 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:45,200 Speaker 1: But he wasn't content to just read old and obsolete 309 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,960 Speaker 1: writers of ancient Greece and then try to apply tired 310 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,760 Speaker 1: ideas to modern times. So he took to the road, 311 00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:54,439 Speaker 1: covering thousands of miles, searching for better methods of healing. 312 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:57,920 Speaker 1: He was a true student of the world, absorbing lessons 313 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,720 Speaker 1: and insights as he made his way. If a cure 314 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,480 Speaker 1: was known to local surgeons and folk healers, as well 315 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:07,480 Speaker 1: as monks, midwives and magicians, he sought it out. What 316 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:10,479 Speaker 1: mattered to him was finding a deep understanding of nature 317 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:13,919 Speaker 1: and how it worked, based on experience and practice, not 318 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,879 Speaker 1: just ideas. Through that line of questioning. He believed that 319 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,720 Speaker 1: he would be able to understand the body. Heaven is 320 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:23,320 Speaker 1: man and man is heaven, he proclaimed, asserting that our 321 00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:26,640 Speaker 1: bodies and the cosmos are more or less the same. 322 00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:30,399 Speaker 1: Everything is made of sulfur, salt, and mercury, which he 323 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:34,720 Speaker 1: called the triaprima. He believed that alchemy was everywhere. He 324 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:37,959 Speaker 1: believed that each body was a natural alchemist and was 325 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:41,960 Speaker 1: the job of the body's processes. One internal alchemist to 326 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:45,200 Speaker 1: separate what was healthy from what was harmful. And then, 327 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:48,359 Speaker 1: of course there's the external alchemist, which is to say, 328 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:52,080 Speaker 1: the alchemist himself, who applied their knowledge and skills to 329 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:56,320 Speaker 1: help the inner alchemist with that process. To Paracelsis, each 330 00:18:56,359 --> 00:18:59,959 Speaker 1: disease had a specific cause and required a specific remedy. 331 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:04,840 Speaker 1: He believed natural cures were incomplete without an alchemist's intervention. 332 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:08,199 Speaker 1: He thought that the healing properties of plants, herbs, and 333 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:11,320 Speaker 1: minerals had to be unlocked in a sense, and the 334 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,359 Speaker 1: keys to this unlocking required great knowledge, care, and most 335 00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:19,000 Speaker 1: of all, hands on experience. Depending on the dose, He 336 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:23,080 Speaker 1: believed anything could be poison through processes the alchemists used, 337 00:19:23,119 --> 00:19:28,640 Speaker 1: like fermentation, digestion, distillation, and cooking. They separated harmful or 338 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: useless parts of natural substances. Doing so enabled and allowed 339 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,560 Speaker 1: them to isolate the healing properties that could then be 340 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:39,480 Speaker 1: used to treat specific illnesses. Suffice to say, he wasn't 341 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:43,320 Speaker 1: a popular guy with the establishment, and his pompous personality 342 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,840 Speaker 1: and snark that he leveled at the Galinist physicians probably 343 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:51,240 Speaker 1: didn't help. The powers that be lampooned him. They mocked him, 344 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,280 Speaker 1: They found him blasphemous. They saw him as a radical 345 00:19:54,359 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 1: and an outsider. They retaliated against him after he was 346 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:02,560 Speaker 1: posted as the city's physician in Basil, Switzerland, in fifty seven. 347 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 1: It didn't help that during a citywide Midsummer bonfire in 348 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:09,000 Speaker 1: that same year, he decided he would cast out his 349 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:12,720 Speaker 1: own demons, So into the fire went The Encyclopedic Canon 350 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:15,720 Speaker 1: of Medicine, a medical text book based on the teachings 351 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:19,240 Speaker 1: of Galen. Paracelsus, left the next year. In the years 352 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,000 Speaker 1: that followed, he continued to travel around Europe, studying diseases, 353 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,800 Speaker 1: practicing medicine, and writing several books. But no matter where 354 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:30,520 Speaker 1: he went, he still courted great controversy from traditional physicians. 355 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:33,800 Speaker 1: In his later years, while remaining optimistic about his skills 356 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:36,639 Speaker 1: as a physician. He did gain some humility, it seems, 357 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:39,399 Speaker 1: acknowledging that he could not cure everything, and that some 358 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: diseases were indeed impossible to cure. Paracelsus died in Salzburg 359 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:47,800 Speaker 1: in September of fifteen forty one. How well, we can 360 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,440 Speaker 1: never be certain, but there are some ideas. It was 361 00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:53,080 Speaker 1: found that he had ten times the amount of mercury 362 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:55,560 Speaker 1: and his bones, something that can happen due to long 363 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:59,800 Speaker 1: exposure to the substance and occupational hazard for any alchemist, 364 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:04,720 Speaker 1: especially a medicinal one. Was Paracelsus poisoned while creating medicine 365 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,560 Speaker 1: or was he trying and failing to heal himself from 366 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:11,240 Speaker 1: ailments acquired by his craft. His bones share this detail, 367 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:13,679 Speaker 1: but as far as the how and the why, they 368 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 1: are silent, and Paracelsus left us no other clues. In time, 369 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:27,840 Speaker 1: many Paracelsian ideas would, like those of Galen, be later rejected. However, 370 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:30,320 Speaker 1: he and his followers were still an important link in 371 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:33,320 Speaker 1: the chain that got us from Galen to modern pharmacology. 372 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,800 Speaker 1: It's undeniable that without the ideas and pursuits of alchemy 373 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,280 Speaker 1: and their applications to healing, we would not have the 374 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,600 Speaker 1: kind of chemical based pharmaceutical medicine that we have today. 375 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:46,920 Speaker 1: Paracelsus helped to transform the craft of pharmacy from a 376 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:50,359 Speaker 1: botanic science into a chemical science. It can be said 377 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: that his methods and his personality redirected the course of medicine. 378 00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:56,960 Speaker 1: He wasn't the first person to think this way, but 379 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 1: he was one of the most influential. Today, one could 380 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,960 Speaker 1: study alchemy at the Paracelsis College in Australia and even 381 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:09,040 Speaker 1: purchase alchemical elixirs online. The roots of science are magical. 382 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,560 Speaker 1: They are full of fantasy and mysticism, which seems like 383 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:15,479 Speaker 1: a strange dichotomy today, but if you think about it, 384 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,800 Speaker 1: these ideas were cutting edge for their time. The folks 385 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,439 Speaker 1: at the Helm were not too different from the innovators 386 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:24,679 Speaker 1: and industry disruptors of today. The world mocked them, but 387 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:29,960 Speaker 1: they quietly embraced them. Their ideas and personalities, often bombastic, polarizing, 388 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:33,239 Speaker 1: and arrogant, brought attention to the causes they stood for, 389 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:36,840 Speaker 1: and thankfully, with time, their ideas were built upon in 390 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 1: ways that allowed progress to march forward, for an untold 391 00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:43,359 Speaker 1: number of lives to be saved, Even if we're still 392 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to live forever. We've certainly 393 00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,560 Speaker 1: come a long way since the days of blaming gods 394 00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,240 Speaker 1: for everything that ails us, although I have to admit 395 00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:04,600 Speaker 1: replacing burnt offerings with experimental elixirs laced with mercury and 396 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:08,520 Speaker 1: other mysterious substances sounds just as frightening to me. And 397 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,520 Speaker 1: yet experimenting is how we learn. But, as one last 398 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:14,920 Speaker 1: story will show us, no progress as possible without risk. 399 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: Stick around through this brief sponsor break, and my teammates 400 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 1: Robin Miniter will tell you all about it. Right, Isaac 401 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:31,120 Speaker 1: just didn't feel right. He felt it in his bones, 402 00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:36,320 Speaker 1: and those around him noticed it. Two. He had grown irritable, unbalanced. 403 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:38,760 Speaker 1: It was true that he was a temperamental guy to 404 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 1: begin with, but it was clear that there was something 405 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:45,600 Speaker 1: else afoot. Something was troubling him deeply. Isaac lay awake 406 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,879 Speaker 1: at night, haunted by the restless hours as the morning 407 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,400 Speaker 1: came closer. He had been having trouble with his memory recently, 408 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,840 Speaker 1: a problem that became more pronounced as he spent more 409 00:23:55,840 --> 00:24:00,600 Speaker 1: hours working in the summer of his published had become 410 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:04,720 Speaker 1: somewhat unhinged. He was publicly picking fights. People couldn't help 411 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: but notice and whispers about his erratic behavior spread. Isaac 412 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,960 Speaker 1: was many things, a math professor, a physicist, and an astronomer, 413 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,879 Speaker 1: but among his scientific interests were some that were a 414 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:20,640 Speaker 1: little bit more, shall we say, esoteric. Isaac was, after all, 415 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:25,280 Speaker 1: an Avid alchemist. Papers discovered as recently as nineteen forty 416 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,360 Speaker 1: revealed that he had tried to make gold on many occasions. 417 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,960 Speaker 1: Isaac was convinced that ancient alchemists had indeed discovered the 418 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,159 Speaker 1: secret to making it, but their secrets had been lost. 419 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,800 Speaker 1: He wanted to find them. A key to this investigation 420 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:43,360 Speaker 1: was mercury. Mercurial compounds were used to treat everything from 421 00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:46,880 Speaker 1: the flu to parasites well into the twentieth century. Though 422 00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:48,920 Speaker 1: it's fallen out of style in day to day use, 423 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: it's still all around us. The element is unavoidable. It 424 00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: comes from the food we eat, the water we swim in, 425 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:57,959 Speaker 1: and the air we breathe. We find it in our 426 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:02,040 Speaker 1: glass thermometers, are light bulbs, are batteries, and our household disinfectants. 427 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: A person's reaction to the substance is unpredictable. For some people, 428 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:10,520 Speaker 1: it might appear to cure them. For others it could kill. Nevertheless, 429 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,480 Speaker 1: we still see it being used in the cosmetic industry, 430 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:17,520 Speaker 1: namely in skin whitening products. The skin whitening industry is 431 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,840 Speaker 1: worth eight billion dollars a year and profits are continuing 432 00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:24,680 Speaker 1: to climb. In two thousand, twenty two zero Mercury Working 433 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,399 Speaker 1: Group found unsafe amounts of mercury and over a hundred 434 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,560 Speaker 1: and twenty of these products. And these aren't fringe items 435 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: found on the back shells of apothecaries. They are widely 436 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 1: available on global e commerce sites like eBay and Amazon. 437 00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:39,320 Speaker 1: As for our friend Isaac, he died in his sleep 438 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:42,399 Speaker 1: one cold night in March. He had lived the old 439 00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,080 Speaker 1: age of eighty four, having become one of the greatest 440 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:49,000 Speaker 1: scientists of all time. Before he died, Isaac Newton gave 441 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:51,000 Speaker 1: us the theory of gravity and taught us how the 442 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,800 Speaker 1: solar system worked. He sketched out the building blocks for 443 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,199 Speaker 1: calculus and invented an early form of physics. In the 444 00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:00,280 Speaker 1: late nineteen seventies, strands of his hair were tested. It 445 00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:02,679 Speaker 1: was revealed that they contained more than fifteen times the 446 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,840 Speaker 1: normal amount of mercury that the body should have. While 447 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,080 Speaker 1: we can't say for certain that his death was caused 448 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,639 Speaker 1: by a slow poisoning. It can help to explain the 449 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,760 Speaker 1: potential causes of strange behaviors later in life. It's possible 450 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,159 Speaker 1: that he was using mercury for more than his alchemical 451 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:20,760 Speaker 1: experiments like Paracelsis. It was possible that he was trying 452 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 1: to use the very thing to cure himself that ailed 453 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:28,920 Speaker 1: him and died as a result. Grim and Mild Presents 454 00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:33,480 Speaker 1: Bedside Manners was executive produced by Aaron Manky and narrated 455 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:37,000 Speaker 1: by Aaron Manky and Robin Miniter. Writing for this season 456 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: was provided by Robin Miniter, with research by Sam Alberty, 457 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:45,160 Speaker 1: Taylor haggerd Orn and Robin Miniter. Production assistance was provided 458 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:49,440 Speaker 1: by Josh Thane, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. 459 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,040 Speaker 1: You can learn more about this show, the Grim and 460 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,760 Speaker 1: Mild team, and all the other podcasts that we make 461 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,640 Speaker 1: over at Grim and Mild dot com, and, as always, 462 00:26:59,040 --> 00:26:59,960 Speaker 1: thanks for listening.