HELMONT, Jan Baptist, van.

by Jan Baptist, van Helmont

£2,750 · Offered by Sokol Books

Jan Baptist van Helmont’s complete works, edited posthumously by his son, with revisions not present in previous editions (cf. Rommelaere, p.63). In this work, Helmont established his name as one of the founders of biochemistry, although some authorities believe that he is perhaps overrated because of his vacillations between mysticism and science. […] his discovery of digestive juices in the stomach and intestine, and especially his first use of the specific gravity of urine for diagnostic purposes, mark him as a man of no insignificant importance in the history of medicine’ (Heirs of Hippocrates n.409). Van Helmont (1580-1644) was a chemist and physician from Brussels, trained at Leuven. Influenced by Paracelsus and iatrochemical theories – i.e., the interpretation and study of medicine and physiology in chemical terms – he partly repudiated them due to his study of mysticism and the ‘New Learning’, based on experimentation, upheld by Harvey and Bacon. Part I begins with the author’s biography and core ideas, including his dislike of astrology, his scientific views and understanding of physiology, physics and natural science in relation to the ‘errors’ of Aristotle, Llull, Galen and Paracelsus. Here are his theories of ‘ferment’ – very near to today’s ‘enzyme’ – a chemical substance found in the stomach and aiding digestion, as well as his theory of ‘gas’ – the first recorded appearance of the word in the modern sense – as an invisible substance different from atmospheric a

• Binding: Hardcover

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