CHAP. II.] VIEWS OF THE IATROCHEMISTS ON DIGESTION. 65 



digest it ; at one time it contracts and at another relaxes, and it gathers 

 and fuses together all which it receives, in order that by the heat of which 

 it has much," by a process of grinding, and further by its exhalation (or 

 spirit) all things being digested and prepared may be distributed throughout 

 the rest of the body.' 



The views of It was in the seventeenth century that the process 

 the writers of of digestion was first looked upon as one akin to fer- 

 the iatro-che- men tation. Johan Baptista van Helmont (born 1577, 

 )oL died 1644), who in spite of the visionary nature of his 

 views, has the merit of having been one of the earliest to shake the 

 artificial fabric of medical dogma which had stood since the time of 

 Galen, and which was so soon to fall through the efforts of the workers 

 of the seventeenth century, first introduced the idea of fermentation, 

 as explanatory of digestive action. 



Under the influence of the archceus as he termed the vital 

 principle which presided over the processes of the organism, shaping 

 its elements into tbe various forms of matter which compose its 

 tissues and organs, there is generated in the stomach a ferment, 

 whereby an acid is produced which brings about the solution of the 

 food. Having attempted to prove, by argument, the insufficiency of 

 the explanation that digestion was brought about through the in- 

 fluence of the heat of the stomach, v. Helmont dwells upon the 

 properties of his ' fermentum acidum;' 



'Non est ergo calor digestionis author, sed est alia facultas quaedam 

 vitalis, quae vere atque formaliter mutat alimenta. Eamque fermentorum 

 nomine designavi Sunt autem plurima fermenta in nobis, prout de diges- 

 tionibus mox explicabo 1 .' 



That mere acidity was not sufficient to explain the digestion of 

 the constituents of food was known to van Helmont, as is shewn by 

 the following passages : 



' Non est autem fermentum istud digestivum in sola aciditate aliquali 

 situm. Neque eiiim acetum vel jus citri farinam fermentat : imo nee 

 farina fermentata, est proinde fermentum stomachicum : sed hoc est acidum 

 esurinum, stomachicum, specificum 2 .' 



Having tried to explain that this ferment must differ in different 

 animals since the desire for and ability to digest different kinds of 

 food is various, he defines his ferment as follows : 



'Fermentum ergo digestivum, est proprietas essentialis, consistens in 

 vitali quadaui aciditate, ad transmutationes potens : ideoque et specifics 

 proprietatis 3 .' 



1 Van Helmont, Ortus Medicines id est Initia Physicce Inaudita Progressus medi- 

 cincc novus. Edente Authoris filio Francisco Mercurio Van Helmont. Editio quarta. 

 Lugduni, 1667. Eefer to Chapter entitled 'Calor efficienter non digerit, sed excitative' 

 (p. 126, paragraph 30). 



2 V. Helmont, loc. cit., parag. 26. 



3 Ibid., parag. 28. 



G. 5 



