Science and Medicine
The work of Paracelsus, a 16th century physician and alchemist who made bold claims for his science, was also one of the inspirations to Hartlib and early chemistry. Harlib was very open-minded, and often tested the ideas and theories of his correspondents. For his own trouble with kidney stones Hartlib took to drinking diluted sulphuric acid — a cure that may have contributed to his death.
Hartlib was interested in theories and practices that modern science would deem irrational, or superstitious — for example, sympathetic medicine. Sympathetic medicine was based on the concept that things in nature that bear a resemblance to an ailment could be used to treat that ailment. Hence, a plant that looked like a snake might be used to treat snakebites, or a yellow colored herb might be used to treat jaundice.
Read more about this topic: Samuel Hartlib
Famous quotes containing the words science and/or medicine:
“Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.”
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)
“For this invention of yours will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn it, by causing them to neglect their memory, inasmuch as, from their confidence in writing, they will recollect by the external aid of foreign symbols, and not by the internal use of their own faculties. Your discovery, therefore, is a medicine not for memory, but for recollection,—for recalling to, not for keeping in mind.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)