A Concise History of Science in India c9.s5.2

c9.s5.2

However, one important difference between the iatro-chemists of the west and those of India cannot be overlooked. In the west, the iatro-chemists, in particular Paracelsus, thought that the human body was to be recognized as a chemical system comprising *mercury*, *sulphur* and *salt*. It was further recognized that an imbalance among the three would give rise to diseased states. The third principle ‘salt’ was introduced by Paracelsus in addition to the already well-known two principles, viz. sulphur and mercury, of the alchemists. This is the famous *triaprima* of Paracelsus.∗ The theory of Paracelsus ran counter to the four humoral theory of the Greeks, of Galen (A.D. 131–201) and Avicenna (*c.* A.D. 980–1037) who were admittedly the two great authorities on medicine in their times. In fact, Paracelsus propounded his theory by burning in public the books of Galen and Avicenna who never considered the human body in chemical terms. The ideas and demonstrations of Paracelsus acted as a stimulus to accept the view that the human body, composed as it is of mineral substances, could, in times of diseased states, be cured by the use of mineral medicines. This eventually pointed to the superiority of the mineral medicines over the herbal ones. According to Paracelsus, alchemy was to engage itself in the noble task of transforming the naturally occurring minerals into products which would prove beneficial to humanity. There came about a view that the diseases were highly specific and, for each such disease, a chemical cure of equal specificity should be found out. Alchemical operations were to be designed towards that end. As against these views, it must be emphasized, the alchemists of India thought of the human body in terms of tantrik elements.