An
orphan boy used to play in the streets of a town, named Thorn, on the bank of
River Vistula, near the Baltic Sea, in Poland. No one was aware that he would prove
fourteen centuries old and accepted theories wrong and irrational. These
theories were not only the matter of scientific knowledge for the people,
instead a matter of religious belief. In Cracow University of Poland, his
worthy teachers sew the seed of deep interest of Mathematics and Astronomy in
his curious mind having boundless love for knowledge. Then his thirst for
knowledge took him to Bologna University where he studied Law and enhanced his
knowledge of Astronomy and Mathematics. He also learnt Greek to have direct
approach over the translations that came from Arabic origin. In Rome, he
started his career as a university lecturer of Astronomy. He had to teach
Ptolemy’s well known Geocentric Theory to his students. The professor was not
an ordinary person but was Nicolas Copernicus. Very soon, he resigned from the
lectureship of university because he was not sure about the authenticity that
he was teaching. He went back to his native town and started working for what he
had left his job. There was a huge problem was of fog and he could not see the
sky clear, but his passion was beyond limits. He remained busy making his
observations and keeping a record of his findings. He silently went on the path
of knowledge, studied stars, planets, observed eclipses, made estimations, and
then proved them with the help of mathematical formulas. After years’ toil and
tiresome struggle, at last he proved that earth is not the center of this
universe. Earth is also moving along with other heavenly bodies around the sun,
which is stationery. This great success gave the scientist a boundless joy as
well as a lot of fear. He concealed his research work because he could not find
courage to reveal the truth. He was well aware of hostility of church, which in
no time would announce him a pagan and have him hanged. He agreed to publish
his work when he was at the edge of grave. He put his book in the name of Pop
Paul 3rd in order to please the church. The publisher wrote in the
preface of the book that the contents of the book are not based on reality but
a mere joke. When the book came before Copernicus, he was at his deathbed and could
not find time to have bird’s eye view of his book for which he had spent all
his life.
The
investigation court with all its majesty and honor was hearing a case; a grey
haired old man was standing before the honorable court. His face was contented,
his eyes were glittering with the ray of knowledge, but his lips were trembling
due to the expected decision. He was once summoned before the same court in
1616, but now the matter was more serious. Now he was there for his book
“Dialogue Concerning the Two Principal Systems of the World”, where he had
passed ridiculous remarks over Ptolemy’s Geocentric Theory and confirmed the
Copernicus’ scientific facts on the basis of his own experiments. The honorable
court had declared its decision. The great scientist Galileo who had invented
telescope, gave the concept of acceleration, and proved that the time of
harmonious motion of Simple Pendulum only depends on the length of the thread
and not on the mass of the bob used. He was the man who categorically denied
Aristotle’s misconception when he dropped two solid spheres of different masses
from the Pisa Tower proving that all bodies reached the ground at the same
time. Who served the long time and gave knowledge to the students in Padua
University the great center of knowledge in North Italy as well as in Pisa
University. Who was not be able to pay full attention to his own children
because of his thirst of knowledge? Now he had to admit that all his scientific
work is just rubbish. He had been detained in his own house and ordered never
to do further work.
Paracelsus’ father was a doctor and
his mother was head of a hospital at Einsiedeln where he was born in 1493.
The life had proved a luxury for him if he would have wished so. However, he
chose for himself a bit difficult and thorny way of knowledge. He was the man
of unique thoughts and had a rebellious nature against the set and unscientific
believes of his time. He
served as surgeon in the armies of three different kings. He remained in the
company of surgeons, alchemists, magicians, astrologists, scholars, and
gypsies. He remained busy in roaming for quest of knowledge in Europe and many
other continents. He went to Iran, visited ancient Egypt and Constantinople. In
1528, when he returned to Switzerland; he was transformed in a well-reputed
doctor. He had very modern approach over the medical profession and believed
that the tiny organisms are responsible for disturbing the inner human system.
He used chemical compounds to enhance the power of the immune system. He was
the first person who used opium tincture in medicine and called it Laudanum. At
Basle University, he started to teach young doctors. He was a strong and
sarcastic voice against the unscientific, un-progressive, blunt quakes,
defenders of the set-believes for their personal motives. Many of his
colleagues turned against him. His rebellious nature had made many enemies for
him. They plotted a conspiracy against him and blamed him of treason. His
friends and people having soft corner for him advised him to flee from the
scene otherwise, they would hang him up. Thus, a shining star of medical
science slipped silently in the darkness. I think it was not the darkness of
night but of ignorance that had lost a genius.
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