Vesalius and Paracelsus.

Introduction As we commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of the death of Andreas Vesalius, our thoughts may turn to another sixteenth-century figure who made an epoch-making contribution to medicine: to Paracelsus.1 At first glance, they seem as much alike as fire and water. Their life and work had its setting in different cultural milieus. The tempestuous character of the German reformation era set its stamp upon the thought and career of Paracelsus. It is the influence of Renaissance humanism which gives its characteristic tone to the work of Vesalius and manifests itself even in his stylistic excesses. What two personalities could be more contrasted than Vesalius, with his curled beard, his courtly bearing, his Ciceronian eloquence, and Paracelsus, coarse and strident, with the appearance, in stature and raiment, of a barbersurgeon? Some episodes from the life of Johannes Oporinus (I507-68), the Basle printer, whose path crossed that of both men, illustrated the contrast.