Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim
(c1490-1541)
Now any E2 scholar will tell you that a node for Bombastus von Hohenheim exists. However, a man with this great of a name deserves to have the whole of it spelled out just for you!
Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, also known as Paracelsus to his university chums, is known to many as "the father of modern medicine," but is known to many more as some type of nut. He was born in Switzerland circa 1520 and spoke German as his first language. He wandered Germany and Bohemia as a travelling physician and later settled down in a small mining town of the latter.
He is most famous for writing a number of treatises on treating disese with metal and metal compounds and was instrumental in the merging of the "sciences" of alchemy and metallurgy. He believed that metals revealed aspects of God's character.
His ideas aided Agricola, aka George Bower (1495-1555 CE), who argued upon the advocacy of deep-earth mining, as prior to Agricola people only mined to approximately twenty feet for fear of violating mother earth. It was Bombastus von Hohenheim's strong arguments on the wisdom of miner's medicines such as salt, sulfur, and mercury which help to gradually swing the deep-earth mining issue in Agricola's favor. The sweet irony is that using mercury as a medicine (for diseses such as Syphilis) probably killed more people than it saved.
Bombastus von Hohenheim's death is unclear. Two popular stories remain: he either died in a passionate duel or in a bar-room drinking contest. Either way suits the glory and splendor of his name just fine. May he rest in peace, circa 1580.