Evening star., 1937-06-19
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook Of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

This bit Of etymology isn't in the dc
tionary. but DR.. c. 3. A. Winslow OF
Yale University, who lectured here the
other night, dug 1t up somewhere. It
explains the origin Of the word "quack." :"
Columbus sailors, 1t appears, picked
up various maladies in Cuba. When
they got back to Europe q disease spread
over the continent like black spot
through rose garden. Among the doc
tors who studied it was one Bombastus
Paraceleus. He treated it with mercury
or Quicksilver" or in the German dia-
lect of the doctor, "quack salber."
Paraceleus was right. But the ortho-
dox medical profession of renaissance
Germany hated him for disturbing the
routine of their ways. They referred to
him and his students contemptuously
As "Quack salbers," or "quacks."
Hence the term came to be applied to
anybody operating under false preten-
sions-especially to medical men.
Paraceleus often was right, but he
was one of history's biggest swelled
heads. He went out Of his way to make
himself obnoxious to his fellow doctors.
All the medicine of the past, he loudly
proclaimed, was bunk" and all who
practised it were asses. In this way he
provided another word to both the
English and German languages. His
first name, BombaStus, passed into the
dictionaries as "bombaSt."
Paraceleus was combination Of
genius and fool. His method Of dag
nosis was to draw the patients horo-
scope. He was very successful, made 4
lot of money. and drank himself to
death. Now historians are coming to
regard him as the father Of expert
mental medicine.
This Paraceleus had been 4 wild young
fellow, got into trouble At the university
where he was = medical student, and
for some years lived the life Of q tramp.
He wandered about with the ragged
hordes Of beggars that infested the
country. Sometimes he was impressed
into one or another of the armies. AL
together . pretty useless sort Of fellow
but all the time gathering from the
hobo "jungles" and army bivouacs
something that was to have = far
reaching effect on history.
For without benent Of 0alen and the
others, these outcasts OF society were
managing to live under quite adverse
CiTCuLnStAnCSB, anu JIlclI uAe IAO OecA
living successfully since mankind came
on earth. Their folk medicine-some Of
twas much better than the medicine
of the doctors.
This was what sunk into the mind Of
Paraceleus Medical tradition WAS,
after ali, "the bunk" The fact that
something worked WAS more important
than whether or no 1t conformed to ira
dition. He came out Of the depths, be-
gan practising this kind Of medicine,
and worked seeming miracles.
The orthodox doctors raved. Paraceleus
raved back. The dead weight OF CEN
tury-old tradition was taken from the
shoulders Of medicine-and the man
primarily responsible for it left - his
monument the word "quack."
Another queer bit of medical history
related by DR.. Winslow, again referring
to the new disease the Indians Of Cuba
10 kindly donated to Columbus' sailors.
Living in italy WAS doctor named Fra
castor1us-A quiet, scholarly man the
exact reverse Of his contemporary, Par
aceleus.
He also studied the disease, got 1t all
wrong and recommended useless treat
ment. But he published the flrst treatise
on it-a poem in three books Of Latin
hexameters which IL one Of the classics
Of the worlds hteraturlt marks . high
water marx q Latin IS:1e during the