144 Van Helmont. [lect. v 



state, coexists with the immortal mind, mens immortalis, the 

 two being connected in a peculiar way. " The sensitive soul is 

 " as it were the husk or shell of the mind, and the latter works 

 " through it, so that at the bidding of the mind the soul makes 

 " use of the archseus whether it itself will or no." 



" Before the Fall of Adam man possessed only the immortal 

 " mind which acted directly on the archaeus, and while this was 

 " the case, while the immortal mind discharged all the functions 

 " of life, and the sensitive soul as yet was not, man was im- 

 " mortal, and the shadows of the brute beast did not blur his 

 " intellect. 



"At the Fall God introduced into man the sensitive soul, 

 "and with it death, the immortal mind retiring within the 

 "sensitive soul and becoming as it were its kernel." 



In thus speaking of these speculative flights of van Helmont 

 by which he brought his chemical views as to the nature of 

 man into harmony with the teaching of the Church, of which, 

 in spite of the heresy attributed to him, he was a devoted 

 son, I may seem to be travelling away from the proper 

 province of physiology. And yet this theory of the sensitive 

 soul did definitely enter into subsequent physiological thought. 

 Both parts of van Helmont's teaching left their mark on suc- 

 ceeding inquiries and thought. The influence of his doctrine of 

 fermentations may as I have just said be traced down even to 

 the present time ; but that doctrine was early stripped of its 

 archseal and other wrappings and soon took on the form of a 

 sober chemical knowledge. 



The doctrine of the sensitive soul was also taken up by 

 some of his successors ; it appeared and reappeared at intervals, 

 now in more or less its original, now in a modified form. And as 

 we pass in review the succession of opinions as to the ultimate 

 causes of the phenomena of living beings we may trace a 

 genetic bond between van Helmont's picturesque and vivid 

 idea of a sensitive soul, and the paler, fainter views of a vital 

 principle held by some at the present day. 



