In contradistinction to Galenic medicines, which were largely derived from the vegetable kingdom, from this time on we find in the literature references to spagyric medicines and a "spagyrist" was a Paracelsian who regarded chemistry as the basis of all medical knowledge.
One cannot speak very warmly of the practical medical writings of Paracelsus.

Gout, which may be taken as the disease upon which he had the greatest reputation, is very badly described, and yet he has one or two fruitful ideas singularly mixed with mediaeval astrology; but he has here and there very happy insights, as where he remarks "nec praeter synoviam locqum alium ullum podagra occupat."(13) In the tract on phlebotomy I see nothing modern, and here again he is everywhere dominated by astrological ideas--"Sapiens dominatur astris." (13) Geneva ed., 1658, Vol.

I, p.

613.
As a protagonist of occult philosophy, Paracelsus has had a more enduring reputation than as a physician.

In estimating his position there is the great difficulty referred to by Sudhoff in determining which of the extant treatises are genuine.