Paracelsus: Father of toxicology, Einsiedeln, Switzerland 1493* - Salzburg, Austria 1541
A woodcut from 'Work' by Paracelsus
All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous
Thus spoke Paracelsus, the medieval father of toxicology, and, arguably also the forefather of homeopathy. Paracelsus (meaning equal or greater than celsus) was a 16th centruy freethinking physician, astrologist and psychopharmacologist who contended that the body was diseased not from within, but attacked by outside agents. He was one of the first to research the use of mineral and chemicals in medicine. He believed that the (human) body was a chemical laboratory inextricably affected by macro, outer influences of Nature. Paracelsus was responsible for the creation laudanum which became widely used as an opiate concoction in the 19th century.