J. B. van Helmont (1577-1644) and F. M. van Helmont (1618-1699.)
§ 57. John Baptist van Helmont (see [plate 12]) was born in Brussels in 1577. He devoted himself to the study of medicine, at first following Galen, but afterwards accepting in part the teachings of Paracelsus; and he helped to a large extent in the overthrow of the old medical doctrines. His purely chemical researches were also of great value to the science. He was a man of profound knowledge, of a religious temperament, and he possessed a marked liking for the mystical. He was inspired by the writings of Thomas à Kempis to imitate Christ in all things, and he practised medicine, therefore, as a work of benevolence, asking no fee for his services. At the same time, moreover, he was a firm believer in the powers of the Philosopher’s Stone, claiming to have himself successfully performed the transmutation of the metals on more than one occasion, though unacquainted with the composition of the medicine employed (see [§ 62]). Many of his theoretical views are highly fantastical. He lived a life devoted to scientific research, and died in 1644.
PLATE 12.
PORTRAITS OF
J. B. AND F. M. VAN HELMONT.
(From the Frontispiece to J. B. van Helmont’s Oriatrike).
To face page 76]
Van Helmont regarded water as the primary element out of which all things are produced. He denied that fire was an element or anything material at all, and he did not accept the sulphur-mercury-salt theory. To him is due the word “gas”—before his time various gases were looked upon as mere varieties of air—and he also made a distinction between gases (which could not be condensed)[79] and vapours (which give liquids on cooling). In particular he investigated the gas that is now known as carbon-dioxide (carbonic anhydride), which he termed gas sylvestre; but he lacked suitable apparatus for the collection of gases, and hence was led in many cases to erroneous conclusions.
[79] It has since been discovered that all gases can be condensed, given a sufficient degree of cold and pressure.
Francis Mercurius van Helmont (see [plate 12]), the son of John Baptist, born in 1618, gained the reputation of having also achieved the magnum opus, since he appeared to live very luxuriously upon a limited income. He was a skilled chemist and physician, but held many queer theories, metempsychosis included.