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Here, other than their homeopathic practice, there is one
other link between Paulina and Paracelsus, the Swiss-German
medical empiricist known for his alchemical medicine in the
sixteen century Europe, also the father of modern medicine
(chemotherapy): their daring and bold pronunciation in
challenging their authority for the sake of a better remedy.
Paracelsus, according to David F. Hoeniger (1992: 118), “is
the first strong voice in European medicine to advocate the
sheer value of direct experience, the need to observe closely
the progress of disease in individual patients, and the
experimentation with new salves and the testing of drugs in
careful dosages.” However, even though Paulina’s author,
Shakespeare, himself probably “had heard of Paracelsian
chemical remedies,” as he “refers to the rival schools ‘both of
Galen and Paracelsus’ in
All’s Well
(2.3.11),” “echoes in
Shakespeare of anything specifically Paracelsian are debatable,
and only a few passages deserve consideration” (Hoeniger,
1992: 124).
Still, Paulina is perhaps a female Paracelsus, one who also
relies on the alchemical principle of pharmacy, of Paracelsian
separation
, as discussed below, that can give birth to the
quintessence, the desired medicine. Paulina believes, as does
Paracelsus, that pharmacy “lies in the knowledge of what is
inside and not in composing and patching up pieces to make
it” (Pagel, 1982: 144). Thus we see that Paulina’s approach is
from the inside, from Leontes’s inner mind, which when it is
isolated/separated for a period of time can be healed. This
fight like with like: “Now, the difference between arcana and medicines is
this, that arcana operate in their own nature, or essence, but medicine in
contrary elements” (Tract II, as cited in Waite, 1926: 38). Paracelsus
explicates: “[Arcana] have the power of transmuting, altering, and restoring
us” (Waite, 1926: 37). It is this thought that led Paracelsus to propose the
homeopathic principle of
similia similibus curentur
: “like cures like.” For
Paracelsus, it is “Morbus arsenicalis”: “Arsenic cures Arsenic, Anthrax
Anthrax, as poison drives out poison” (Pagel, 1982: 146-147).