Only in Paracelsus, the famous father of chemotherapy, can we trace the revival of interest in opium. The great Swiss alchemist of the 16th century, a medical reformer and medicine man, defended opium and used it on a large scale. And here again, as in the case of purified alcohol, we meet with an alchemist, busy searching for the spirit, locked, as it seemed, in matter, who discovered the means to release the power contained in a simple plant. And just like Llull before him, Paracelsus assumed that he had discovered a universal panacea: “I own a secret means, which I call“ incense ”and which surpasses all other heroic means.”

Soon after Paracelsus began to proclaim the virtues of opium, the doctors belonging to his school began the preparation of a medicinal panacea, whose exceptional active basis was the abundant amount of opium contained in them. One of these enthusiastic followers, the alchemist van Helmont , became widely known as “Dr. Opius,” the first “trupak,” or