Humoral model

Paracelsus replaced with “truly Christian medical framework” took off in 1550s = chemical medicine (Chemical Physick) in which cosmos was composed of three substances: mercury (transformative); sulphur (binding), and salt (stabilizing). In this model, ill health resulted from dysfunctional chemical processes in the body. A more radical departure from humoral model, was that diseases were specific entities that would afflict everyone the same way. Among most influential proponents of the Paracelsian chemical model was Flemish physician Jean Baptist van Helmont. “. . . the centrality of Christian doctrine to this new body of medical though meant that some people saw chemical practitioners as more accessible and more charitable than their Galenic counterparts. Chemical physicians were also some of the first to criticize the practice of bloodletting” (J. Evans & Read, loc 235-252).