In digestive disorders the archaeus failed to do this, and the poisons thus gaining access to the system were "coagulated" and deposited in the joints and various other parts of the body.

Thus the deposits in the kidneys and tartar on the teeth were formed; and the stony deposits of gout were particularly familiar examples of this.

All this is visionary enough, yet it shows at least a groping after rational explanations of vital phenomena.
Like most others of his time, Paracelsus believed firmly in the doctrine of "signatures"-- a belief that every organ and part of the body had a corresponding form in nature, whose function was to heal diseases of the organ it resembled.

The vagaries of this peculiar doctrine are too numerous and complicated for lengthy discussion, and varied greatly from generation to generation.

In general, however, the theory may be summed 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.