med
up in the words of Paracelsus: "As a woman is known by her shape, so are
the medicines." Hence the physicians were constantly searching for some
object of corresponding shape to an organ of the body. The most natural
application of this doctrine would be the use of the organs of the lower
animals for the treatment of the corresponding diseased organs in
man. Thus diseases of the heart were to be treated with the hearts of
animals, liver disorders with livers, and so on. But this apparently
simple form of treatment had endless modifications and restrictions,
for not all animals were useful. For example, it was useless to give the
stomach of an ox in gastric diseases when the indication in such cases
was really for the stomach of a rat. Nor were the organs of animals the
only "signatures" in nature. Plants also played a very important role,
and the herb-doctors devoted endless labor to searching for such plants.
Thus the blood-root, with its red juice, was supposed to be useful in
blood diseases, in stopping hemorrhage, or in subduing the redness of an
inflammation.

Paracelsus's system of signatures, however, was so complicated by
his theories of astronomy and alchemy that it is practically beyond
comprehension. It is possible that he himself may have understood it,
but it is improbable that any one else did--as shown by the endless
discussions that have taken place about it. But with all the vagaries of
his theories he was still rational in his applications, and he attacked
to good purpose the complicated "shot-gun" prescriptions of his
contemporaries, advocating more simple methods of treatment.

The ever-fascinating subject of electricity, or, more specifically,
"magnetism," found great favor with him, and with properly adjusted
magnets he claimed to be able to cure many diseases. In epilepsy
and lockjaw, for example, one had but to fasten magnets to the four
extremities of the body, and then, "when the proper medicines were
given," the cure would be effected. The easy loop-hole for excusing
failure on the ground of improper medicines is obvious, but Paracelsus
declares that this one prescription is of more value than "all the
humoralists have ever written or taught."

Since Paracelsus condemned the study of anatomy as useless, he quite
naturally regarded surgery in the same light. In this he would have done
far better to have studied some of his predecessors, such as Galen,
Paul of Aegina, and Avicenna. But in