v] of Chemical Physiology. 141 



" The sixth and last digestion takes place in the kitchens of 

 " the several members, for there are as many stomachs as there 

 "are nutritive members. In this sixth digestion a spiritus, a 

 " ferment innate in each place cooks its food for itself." In the 

 language of to-day, all the tissues live upon the common blood, 

 and the power of assimilation lies in the tissue itself; it is the 

 tissue and not the blood which primarily determines assimila- 

 tion, the qualities of the blood have only an indirect influence. 

 " A vein," says van Helmont, meaning probably an artery, " may 

 "be considered as a vessel containing aliment prepared for 

 " the kitchens of the tissues, but it is not their kitchen. Each 

 " tissue maintains its own individual kitchen within itself." 



He gives as an instance the nutrition of muscle. Accepting 

 the as yet common view (Stensen and Borelli had not yet 

 written) that muscle consists of an inactive, passive, non-con- 

 tractile part, the ' caro,' or flesh, and the active contractile part, 

 the fibres, van Helmont suggests that the crude parts of 

 blood can directly, without elaborate nutritive action supply 

 the ' caro,' the flesh, which therefore can at any time increase 

 and grow in a vegetative manner, but that the fibres are nourished 

 by the vivified blood, through the activity of the tissue ferments, 

 and the growth of this, the active part of the muscle, is therefore 

 subject to the laws of life. 



A corollary to this view of the sixth digestion, of the action 

 of the individual ferments of the several tissues is of no little 

 importance ; it led van Helmont to a position far in advance of 

 his peers. 



"I make," says he, "no distinction between vital and 

 " animal spirits. The same blood with the same vital spirits, 

 " vitalized blood (arterial blood as we should say), is carried to all 

 " the tissues. The boat has only one rudder, each tissue lives 

 " upon that blood, exercising its own functions, the brain and 

 " other nervous tissues behaving in this respect like the rest of 

 " the tissues. As the spiritus, the so-called animal spirit, does not 

 " differ specifically in itself in the several organs of senses and 

 "instruments of movement, though the senses and the movements 

 " ditfer among themselves, so it is unnecessary to suppose an 

 " animal spirit apart from the vital spirit of the vitalized blood." 



