The Philosophus per ignem, Toparcha in Merode, Royenborch, as he is styled in certain of his writings, is not an easy man to tackle.

I show the title-page of the "Ortus Medicinae," the collection of his works by his son.

As with the pages of Paracelsus, there are many gems to be dug out.

The counterblast against bleeding was a useful protest, and to deny in toto its utility in fever required courage--a quality never lacking in the Father of Modern Chemistry, as he has been called.
A man of a very different type, a learned academic, a professor of European renown, was Daniel Sennert of Wittenberg, the first to introduce the systematic teaching of chemistry into the curriculum, and who tried to harmonize the Galenists and Paracelsians.

Franciscus Sylvius, a disciple of Van Helmont, established the first chemical laboratory in Europe at Leyden, and to him is due the introduction of modern clinical teaching.