Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and alchemist, who contributed to the development of chemistry, dies. As a youth, he committed himself to cure find new chemical treatments for curing disease. Arrogant and innovative, he struggled all his life against the conventional views of the time, but his success in curing terrible diseases, such as elephantiasis (made famous with the case of the Elephant Man), earned him respect as the father of modern pharmacology.