v] of Chemical Physiology. 137 



This ferment in the stomach is an acid ferment (questions 

 of acids, alkalis and salts were beginning to move the chemists 

 of the time) ; but the acidity is not the ferment itself, is only the 

 organ or instrument of the ferment. " If the ferment were 

 " only an acid, vinegar alone would be able to transmute a mass 

 " of bread and be sufficient for the transformation of all our 

 " food." He adds that " condiments help digestion, not because 

 "they add to the ferment, for a ferment can add nothing to 

 " itself, it is a specific gift of vital nature ; they simply prepare 

 " the food for the easier access of the ferment." 



In this exposition of peptic digestion we recognize the 

 careful, exact observer ; for the above comes very near to the 

 doctrines of to-day, and even the idea about the spleen has 

 its modern analogue. 



He then goes on to state that the acid chyle, passing into 

 the duodenum immediately acquires a saline nature, changes 

 from an acid into a salt, 'just as vinegar by the addition of 

 nimium (lead oxide) is changed into an aluminous sweetness." 

 But this analogy is, he hastens to say, a lame one. The change 

 in the duodenum is brought about ' through a more excellent 

 vigour of transmutation.' The ferment actions of which he is 

 speaking are much more complicated than ordinary chemical 

 actions. It is, I may say in passing, worth while to note this 

 expression ; it shews that van Helmont was nearer the truth 

 than some of those who immediately followed him. 



This change in the duodenum constitutes van Helmont's 

 second digestion, and the ferment by which it is effected is 

 furnished by the bile ; he argues at great length that the bile 

 is not a mere excrement, but is or contains a ferment. And he 

 remarks in passing that the work of the acid ferment of the 

 stomach ceases when the chyle reaches the duodenum. " For 

 " every ferment dislikes to have as its allies things foreign to 

 "itself; it will not listen to the commands of strange masters, 

 " it refuses to play the thief and put its sickle into another's 

 "harvest." We repeat this saying of van Helmont's, when 

 to-day we teach that the pepsin of the stomach is destroyed in the 

 duodenum by the bile and pancreatic juice. Of pancreatic juice 

 van Helmont knew nothing, for Wirsung had as yet not written. 



