Corrupt System
Not only was the medical knowledge inaccurate during Paracelsus’ time, but the system between the doctors and pharmacies was corrupt. Paracelsus noticed that pharmacies and doctors were tricking sick and injured people into paying lots of money for cures that weren't actually beneficial. He began to help people using methods that he discovered, rather than the traditional ones, and said that the only people who believed in his medical practices were those that he healed. Paracelsus himself stated that the doctors had:
"...built up an artificial system, which is fit for nothing but to swindle the public and prey upon the pockets of the sick."
Upon further investigation, he found that in the pharmacies, many drugs had already gone bad, while others never worked in the first place. Further, he learned that the pharmacies and doctors were working together, prescribing to patients the more expensive medicine.
Contemporary Medical Beliefs
One of the main medical leaders of the time period was Galen, who wrote a book called “On the Natural Faculties,” saying:
“Must we not, therefore, suppose [Asclepiades] was either mad, or entirely unacquainted with practical medicine? For who does not know that if a drug for attracting phlegm be given in a case of jaundice it will not even evacuate four cyathi of phlegm? Similarly also if one of the hydragogues be given. A cholagogue, on the other hand, clears away a great quantity of bile, and the skin of patients so treated at once becomes clear.” -Galen
Galen's quote provides an example of the medical practices used at the time period, and shows that some of the cures seem illogical now. These practices were all widely accepted, however, it is shown that Asclepiades was ridiculed by Galen for trying a different medical approach. This exemplifies the leadership that Paracelsus needed in order to stand up to the ideas of the philosophers and scholars.
Paracelsus, himself, knew that medicine of the time was more detrimental than it was beneficial, and remarked,
"Since I saw that the doctrine accomplished nothing but the making of corpses, deaths, murder, deformity, cripples, and decay, and had no foundation, I was compelled to pursue the truth in another way, to seek another basis, which I have attained after hard labor."
Not only was the medical knowledge inaccurate during Paracelsus’ time, but the system between the doctors and pharmacies was corrupt. Paracelsus noticed that pharmacies and doctors were tricking sick and injured people into paying lots of money for cures that weren't actually beneficial. He began to help people using methods that he discovered, rather than the traditional ones, and said that the only people who believed in his medical practices were those that he healed. Paracelsus himself stated that the doctors had:
"...built up an artificial system, which is fit for nothing but to swindle the public and prey upon the pockets of the sick."
Upon further investigation, he found that in the pharmacies, many drugs had already gone bad, while others never worked in the first place. Further, he learned that the pharmacies and doctors were working together, prescribing to patients the more expensive medicine.
Contemporary Medical Beliefs
One of the main medical leaders of the time period was Galen, who wrote a book called “On the Natural Faculties,” saying:
“Must we not, therefore, suppose [Asclepiades] was either mad, or entirely unacquainted with practical medicine? For who does not know that if a drug for attracting phlegm be given in a case of jaundice it will not even evacuate four cyathi of phlegm? Similarly also if one of the hydragogues be given. A cholagogue, on the other hand, clears away a great quantity of bile, and the skin of patients so treated at once becomes clear.” -Galen
Galen's quote provides an example of the medical practices used at the time period, and shows that some of the cures seem illogical now. These practices were all widely accepted, however, it is shown that Asclepiades was ridiculed by Galen for trying a different medical approach. This exemplifies the leadership that Paracelsus needed in order to stand up to the ideas of the philosophers and scholars.
Paracelsus, himself, knew that medicine of the time was more detrimental than it was beneficial, and remarked,
"Since I saw that the doctrine accomplished nothing but the making of corpses, deaths, murder, deformity, cripples, and decay, and had no foundation, I was compelled to pursue the truth in another way, to seek another basis, which I have attained after hard labor."