Chemistry - MT2 - Part 1 Flashcards
What are the 3 importance of alchemy to chemistry?
- Techniques – precipitation + distillation
- Process of analysis + transformation
- Power over nature
What are the 3 deficiencies of alchemy as a science?
- Mystical in some pursuit
- Not quantitative
- No theory/no understanding of why things occurred
What was Paracelsus real name?
Philippus Aureolus Theophratus Bpmbastus von Hohenheim
What did Paracelsus reject?
Academia
- and went off to travel instead
What did Paracelsus say about doctors?
A doctor must see out old wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers and such outlaws and take lessons from them
- a doc must be a traveller. Knowledge is experience
Where did Paracelsus work?
In mines to learn about mettallurgy and the properties of metals
Even though Paracelsus didnt have the formal education, what did Paracelsus become?
A physician
- and opened up his own private practice
Why did patients have high regards for Paracelsus as a physician? (3)
- He didnt sew unnecessary
- He didnt over charge
- He didnt give patients meds they didnt need
How did Paracelsus piss off other people?
He thought he knew more than they did
Who is the only ancient author worth studying?
Hippocrates
What should medicine focus on?
Function, not form
- dissection of cadavers are useless
- dead anatomy
What kind of process is life?
Chemical
What is chemistry central to understand? (2)
- Human function
2. Medicine
Iatrochemistry
Using chemistry to understand human function and medicine
What does the body have that controls its function?
A mystical internal alchemist
- archeus
What is illness a result of?
Defects in the body chemistry
What should choice of drug be based on? (2)
- Astrology
- correspondences among the planets, metals and parts of the body - Doctrine of signatures
How did Paracelsus treat wounds?
By keeping them clean and letting themselves heal by themselves
- poured oil over the wounds to keep them clean
- very painful but better than cutting of a limb
How would Paracelsus treat patients with syphilis?
With mercury
- highly toxic but it had beneficial effects
What are 2 drugs that are associated with Paracelsus?
- Laudamum
- mixture of wine and opium
- functioned as a cough represent - Sweet vitrial
- di ethyl ether
How did Paracelsus think like a chemist? (3)
- Believed in pure starting material
- Precise measurements
- Defined drugs
How did Paracelsus think like a biochemist? (3)
- Quantity and dosage were important
- dose makes the poison - Involved in chemical transformations
- Specific substances had specific effects
How did Paracelsus think like a mystic? (2)
- Astrology
2. Forward thinking with biochemistry
Who subscribed to the approach of iatrochemistry?
Jan Baptista Van Helmont
What did Van Helmont understand?
The conversion of matter in chemical reactions
- observed dissolving metal in acid does not change the combined weight of the 2
- the solution weighed the same as both the solute and the solvent separately (but were mixed together)
What did Van Helmont believe?
That everything was made from water
- except air
Van Helmont famous will tree experiment
Was the 1st experiment in plant physiology because it was a quantitative experiment
- took a young tree and watered it and found out that it had gained weight
- couldnt have been from the soil so it must have been the water
What kinds of air did Van Helmont think there was? (2)
- Vapours
2. Spirits
Van Helmont charcoal experiment
Burned charcoal and found the products consisted of ash and vapours that would not support the burning of a candle
- vapours with the same property were given off by the burning of alcohol and the fermentation of wine
Spiritus sylvester
Spirit of wood
- CO2
What did Van Helmont believe about fermentation?
That food used by animals, alcoholic fermentation and the burning of wood are all the same process
- fermentation
