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1493
Einsiedeln, Switzerland
1541
Salzburg, Austria

Physician and reformer

The Swiss-born physician Theophrastus Paracelsus is considered the first to use chemicals to treat disease. His ideas were not widely accepted until the seventeenth century, when physicians and chemists studied his works and incorporated his methods into mainstream European medicine.

Paracelus's actual name was Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. After his death he was commonly known as Theophrastus Paracelsus or simply Paracelsus. He was born in Einsiedeln, a village in Switzerland, where his German father practiced medicine. His mother, a native of the village, served at a nearby monastery. After his mother's death, Paracelsus and his father moved to Villach, in a mining region of Carinthia. Paracelsus claimed that he was tutored by his father and various priests, including...