Jan Baptist van Helmont - biography. The meaning of Helmont Jan Baptist van in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, BSE What scientific term was introduced by van Helmont

Jan Baptista van Helmont (also referred to as: Jan Baptista van Helmont, Jean Baptiste van Helmont, Jean Baptiste van Helmont; Dutch. Jan Baptista van Helmont, English. Jan Baptist van Helmont) an outstanding chemist, physiologist, physician and theosophist-mystic.
Family, study, travel.
Jan Baptista van Helmont was born on January 12, 1579. He was youngest child in the Flemish family of the prosecutor and member of the Council of Brussels Christian van Helmont and Maria (van) Stassaert, who were married on January 28, 1567 in the Brussels Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula (English). Besides him, the family has two sons and two daughters.
Jan Baptista is educated at the University of Leuven, but cannot decide what science to pursue until he settles on medicine.
Then he interrupts his studies and goes to travel around Switzerland, Italy, France and England.
Returning from a trip, he lived in Antwerp for some time, including in 1605, during the plague epidemic. In 1609 he received his doctorate in medicine. The same year he married Margaret van Ranst from a wealthy “noble” family. The couple live in Vilvaarde, near Brussels, and have six or seven children in their family. His son, Francis Mercury (1614-1699), also found the philosopher's stone and has merits in teaching the deaf and dumb and in the physiology of language.
Research.
Having settled in Vilward, van Helmont took up chemistry and the study of cabalistic and mystical works. He made many discoveries in chemistry, introduced the term “gas” into chemical terminology, which he named by analogy with the Greek chaos; by chemical means he sought to find a cure for all diseases; in general, he considered chemical processes to be the beginning of many phenomena. Refuting Aristotle, Galen and modern medical science, he created his own theory to explain phenomena in a living organism. He allowed two immaterial principles in man: 1) Archeus - a vital principle that penetrates the entire body, controls nutrition, digestion of food and resists diseases; 2) Duumvi r at - the rational principle, or the soul itself, which takes place not in the brain, but in the stomach and liver. He called himself Medicus per ignem, pointing to the source from which he wanted to draw his universal medicine.
Van Helmont's experience is known when he took 200 pounds of dry soil and a willow branch weighing 5 pounds, and grew it, watering it only with rainwater. The weight of the willow after 5 years was 164 pounds, and the weight of the soil had decreased by only 2 ounces. van Helmont erroneously concluded that the material from which the tree was formed came from water used for irrigation.
van Helmont, along with Paracelsus and Silvius, is the most prominent representative of iatrochemistry.
Van Helmont paid a lot of attention to issues of digestion. In his Origin of Medicine, he argues with his contemporary views, according to which digestion occurs due to the heat of the body, and asks how then does digestion occur in cold-blooded animals? His own opinion was that digestion is a chemical process taking place inside the body, for example, inside the stomach, in which the most important role is played by a chemical reagent, which he called an “enzyme” (from the Latin fermentum “fermentation”). Thus, van Helmont came close to the modern understanding of the role of enzymes in digestion. Van Helmont also proposed and described six different stages of digestion.
van Helmont is one of the major representatives of atrochemistry. He was one of the first scientists to raise the question of true primes components complex bodies Questioning the Aristotelian elements and the principles of alchemists on the grounds that their presence cannot be detected in the composition of most bodies, van Helmont proposed to consider as simple bodies only those that can be isolated during the decomposition of complex bodies. Thus, since water was always released during the decomposition of plant and animal substances, van Helmont considered it a simple body and the main component of complex bodies. In search of other simple bodies, van Helmont experimented a lot with metals. Van Helmont's experiment with silver is very remarkable: a precisely weighed amount of silver was dissolved in strong vodka (nitric acid), the solution was evaporated, the residue was calcined and fused. The weight of the resulting silver turned out to be exactly equal to the original. “Silver does not lose its essence because it was dissolved in strong vodka, although it disappeared from view and became completely transparent,” wrote van Helmont. This experiment is also interesting as one of the first examples of a quantitative study of a phenomenon.
van Helmont was one of the first to use silver nitrate (lapis) to cauterize wounds, inflammations and warts. He believed that gastric acid plays a decisive role in digestion, and therefore proposed treating diseases caused by excess acids in the stomach with alkalis. He introduced the term “gas” into chemistry. In a number of issues, he stood on the classical positions of alchemy, believing, for example, that it was possible to transform base metals (mercury, lead, etc.) into gold using the so-called. philosopher's stone. van Helmont adhered to vitalistic ideas that life processes supposedly regulated by special “spirits of life” (“archaea”); recognized the possibility of spontaneous generation.
Van Helmont owns many works. The main ones were published by his son Francis-Mercury only after the death of the scientist in 1646, and later, in 1682, the complete collected works of Van Helmont (“Opera omnia”) were published.

, Southern Netherlands

Jan Baptista van Helmont(also called: Jan Baptist van Helmont, Jean Baptiste van Helmont, Jean Baptiste van Helmont; Netherlands Jan Baptista van Helmont Jan Baptist van Helmont; January 12, 1580, Brussels - December 30, 1644, Vilvoorde, Southern Netherlands) - chemist, physiologist, physician and mystic theosophist.

Family, study, travel

Jan Baptista van Helmont was the youngest child in the South Dutch family of the prosecutor and member of the Council of Brussels Christian van Helmont and Maria (van) Stassart, who were married on January 28, 1567 in the Brussels Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula (eng. St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral ). Besides him, the family has two sons and two daughters.

Jan Baptista is educated at the University of Leuven, but cannot decide what science to pursue until he decides on medicine.

Research

Having settled in Vilvoorde, van Helmont took up chemistry and the study of cabalistic and mystical works. He made many discoveries in chemistry and introduced the term “gas” into chemical terminology, which he named by analogy with the Greek chaos; by chemical means he sought to find a cure for all diseases; in general, he considered chemical processes to be the beginning of many phenomena. Refuting Aristotle, Galen and modern medical science, he created his own theory to explain phenomena in a living organism. He allowed two immaterial principles in man: 1) Archeus- the vital principle that penetrates the entire body, controls nutrition, digestion of food and resists diseases; 2) Duumvirat- the rational principle, or the soul itself, which takes place not in the brain, but in the stomach and liver. He called himself Medicus per ignem, pointing to the source from which he wanted to draw his universal medicine.

Van Helmont's experience is known when he took 200 pounds of dry soil and a willow branch weighing 5 pounds, and grew it, watering it only with rainwater. The weight of the willow after 5 years was 164 pounds, and the weight of the earth had decreased by only 2 ounces. Van Helmont erroneously concluded that the material from which the tree was formed came from water used for irrigation.

Study of digestion

Van Helmont paid a lot of attention to issues of digestion. In his Ortus Medicinae he argues with his contemporary views, according to which digestion occurs due to the heat of the body and asks how then does digestion occur in cold-blooded animals? His own opinion was that digestion is a chemical reaction taking place inside the body, for example, inside the stomach, in which the most important role is played by a chemical reagent, which he called “enzyme” (from lat. fermentum"fermentation"). Thus, van Helmont came close to the modern understanding of the role of enzymes in digestion. Van Helmont also proposed and described six different stages of digestion.

Van Helmont or Hooke?

For a long time it was believed that the portrait, published on July 3, 1939 in Time magazine, belongs to the English naturalist Robert Hooke (- years). Lisa Jardine en even put him on the cover of her book about Hooke. However, later researchers came to the conclusion that the portrait depicts van Helmont.

From the writings of van Helmont

Alphabeti vere Naturalis Hebraici brevissima Delineato (" Short description true natural alphabet of the Jews"), 1667

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- Yes, yes, with thunder! – they repeated approvingly in the back rows.
The crowd approached a large table, at which, in uniforms, in ribbons, gray-haired, bald, seventy-year-old noblemen sat, almost all of whom Pierre had seen in their homes with jesters and in clubs outside Boston. The crowd approached the table, still buzzing. One after another, and sometimes two together, pressed from behind to the high backs of chairs by the overlapping crowd, the speakers spoke. Those standing behind noticed what the speaker had not said and were in a hurry to say what was missed. Others, in this heat and cramped space, rummaged in their heads to see if there was any thought, and hurried to say it. The old noblemen familiar to Pierre sat and looked around first at this one, then at the other, and the expression of most of them only said that they were very hot. Pierre, however, felt excited, and the general feeling of the desire to show that we didn’t care, expressed more in sounds and facial expressions than in the meaning of speeches, was communicated to him. He did not renounce his thoughts, but he felt guilty of something and wanted to justify himself.
“I only said that it would be more convenient for us to make donations when we know what the need is,” he said, trying to shout over other voices.
One of the nearest old men looked back at him, but was immediately distracted by a scream that began on the other side of the table.
- Yes, Moscow will be surrendered! She will be the redeemer! - one shouted.
– He is the enemy of humanity! - shouted another. - Let me speak... Gentlemen, you are pushing me...

At this time, with quick steps in front of the parting crowd of nobles, in a general's uniform, with a ribbon over his shoulder, with his protruding chin and quick eyes, Count Rostopchin entered.
“The Emperor will be here now,” said Rostopchin, “I just came from there.” I believe that in the position we find ourselves in, there is not much to judge. The Emperor deigned to gather us and the merchants,” said Count Rastopchin. “Millions will flow from there (he pointed to the hall of merchants), and our job is to field a militia and not spare ourselves... This is the least we can do!”
Meetings began between some nobles sitting at the table. The entire meeting was more than quiet. It even seemed sad when, after all the previous noise, old voices were heard one by one, saying one: “I agree,” the other, for variety, “I am of the same opinion,” etc.
The secretary was ordered to write a decree of the Moscow nobility stating that Muscovites, like Smolensk residents, donate ten people per thousand and full uniforms. The gentlemen who were sitting stood up, as if relieved, rattled their chairs and walked around the hall to stretch their legs, taking someone by the arm and talking.
- Sovereign! Sovereign! - suddenly echoed through the halls, and the entire crowd rushed to the exit.
Along a wide passage, between the wall of nobles, the sovereign walked into the hall. All faces expressed respectful and frightened curiosity. Pierre stood quite far away and could not fully hear the sovereign’s speeches. He understood only from what he heard that the sovereign was talking about the danger in which the state was, and about the hopes that he placed in the Moscow nobility. Another voice answered the sovereign, reporting about the decree of the nobility that had just taken place.
- Gentlemen! - said the sovereign’s trembling voice; the crowd rustled and fell silent again, and Pierre clearly heard the sovereign’s so pleasantly human and touched voice, which said: “I have never doubted the zeal of the Russian nobility.” But on this day it exceeded my expectations. I thank you on behalf of the fatherland. Gentlemen, let's act - time is most valuable...
The Emperor fell silent, the crowd began to crowd around him, and enthusiastic exclamations were heard from all sides.
“Yes, the most precious thing is... the royal word,” said the sobbing voice of Ilya Andreich from behind, who heard nothing, but understood everything in his own way.
From the hall of the nobility the sovereign went into the hall of the merchants. He stayed there for about ten minutes. Pierre, among others, saw the sovereign leaving the merchants' hall with tears of tenderness in his eyes. As they later learned, the sovereign had just begun his speech to the merchants when tears flowed from his eyes, and he finished it in a trembling voice. When Pierre saw the sovereign, he went out, accompanied by two merchants. One was familiar to Pierre, a fat tax farmer, the other was a head, with a thin, narrow beard, yellow face. They both cried. The thin man had tears in his eyes, but the fat farmer wept like a child and kept repeating:
- Take life and property, Your Majesty!
Pierre no longer felt anything at that moment except the desire to show that he didn’t care about anything and that he was ready to sacrifice everything. His speech with a constitutional direction appeared to him as a reproach; he was looking for an opportunity to make amends for it. Having learned that Count Mamonov was donating the regiment, Bezukhov immediately announced to Count Rostopchin that he was giving up a thousand people and their contents.
Old man Rostov could not tell his wife what had happened without tears, and he immediately agreed to Petya’s request and went to record it himself.
The next day the sovereign left. All the assembled nobles took off their uniforms, again settled in their houses and clubs and, grunting, gave orders to the managers about the militia, and were surprised at what they had done.

Napoleon started the war with Russia because he could not help but come to Dresden, could not help but be overwhelmed by honors, could not help but put on a Polish uniform, could not succumb to the enterprising impression of a June morning, could not refrain from an outburst of anger in the presence of Kurakin and then Balashev.

Dutch naturalist, physician and mystic theosophist Jan Baptist van Helmont was born in Brussels; in Louvain he received theological and medical education and, in particular, studied “Kabbalah”. Having become a doctor and having carefully studied the writings of other atrochemists, Van Helmont set off on a ten-year journey through Europe to improve his knowledge in medicine. He visited the Alps, Switzerland, Spain, France and England and in 1609 received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Then he settled in Vilvoorde near Brussels and until the end of his life he was engaged in research in his own home laboratory. Van Helmont owns many works. The main ones were published by his son Francis-Mercury only after the death of the scientist in 1646, and later, in 1682, the complete collected works of Van Helmont (“Opera omnia”) were published.

Van Helmont is one of the major representatives. He was one of the first scientists to raise the question of the true simple components of complex bodies. Casting doubt on the grounds that their presence cannot be detected in the composition of most bodies, Van Helmont proposed to consider as simple bodies only those that can be isolated during the decomposition of complex bodies. Thus, since water was always released during the decomposition of plant and animal substances, Van Helmont considered it a simple body and the main component of complex bodies. In search of other simple bodies, Van Helmont experimented a lot with metals. Van Helmont's experiment with silver is very remarkable: a precisely weighed amount of silver was dissolved in strong vodka (nitric acid), the solution was evaporated, the residue was calcined and fused. The weight of the resulting silver turned out to be exactly equal to the original. “Silver does not lose its essence because it was dissolved in strong vodka, although it disappeared from view and became completely transparent.”– wrote Van Helmont. This experiment is also interesting as one of the first examples of a quantitative study of a phenomenon.

Van Helmont was the first to conduct experimental studies of the process of plant nutrition, which became the basis for the so-called. water theory of plant nutrition. Having grown a willow branch in a barrel, he found that its almost 40-fold increase in weight over 5 years was not accompanied by any significant decrease in the weight of the earth. Despite the fallacy, this theory, which viewed plant life as a process occurring only under the influence of material forces, dealt a blow to the religious-idealistic worldview.

Van Helmont was one of the first to use silver nitrate (lapis) to cauterize wounds, inflammations and warts. He believed that gastric acid plays a decisive role in digestion, and therefore proposed treating diseases caused by excess acids in the stomach with alkalis. He introduced the term “gas” into chemistry. In a number of issues, he stood on the classical positions of alchemy, believing, for example, that it was possible to transform base metals (mercury, lead, etc.) into gold using the so-called. philosopher's stone. Van Helmont adhered to vitalistic ideas that life processes are supposedly regulated by special “spirits of life” (“archaea”); recognized the possibility of spontaneous generation.

GELMONT JAN BAPTIST VAN

Helmont Jan Baptist van (Jan. 1579, Brussels, - 12/30/1644, Vilvoorde, near Brussels), Dutch naturalist, one of the representatives of iatrochemistry. In botany, G. was the first to conduct experimental studies of the process of plant nutrition, which became the basis for the so-called. water theory of plant nutrition. Despite the fallacy, this theory, which viewed plant life as a process occurring only under the influence of material forces, dealt a blow to the religious-idealistic worldview. G. believed that gastric acid plays a decisive role in digestion, and therefore proposed treating diseases caused by excess acids in the stomach with alkalis. He introduced the term "gas" into chemistry. In a number of issues, he took the position of alchemy, believing, for example, that it was possible to transform base metals (mercury, lead, etc.) into gold using the so-called. philosopher's stone. He recognized spontaneous generation, which was progressive for that time. G. adhered to vitalistic ideas that life processes were supposedly regulated by special “spirits of life” (“archaea”).

Works: Ortus medicinae, ed. nova, Amst., 1652.

Lit.: Menshutkin B.N., Chemistry and ways of its development, M. - L., 1937; Spiess G. A., J. B. van Helmont's System der Medizin-, Fr. / M., 1840.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB. 2012

Family, study, travel

Jan Baptista is educated at the University of Leuven, but cannot decide what science to pursue until he decides on medicine.

Research

Study of digestion

Van Helmont or Hooke?

From the writings of van Helmont

Alphabeti vere Naturalis Hebraici brevissima Delineato ("A Brief Description of the True Natural Alphabet of the Jews"), 1667

Write a review of the article "Helmont, Jan Baptista van"

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Excerpt characterizing Helmont, Jan Baptista van

Door opened. And a tall, fragile girl entered it, carefully looking around... Horror and joy shackled me for a second, not allowing me to move... It was my daughter, my little Anna!!!.. True, it was already difficult to call her little now , because over these two years she has grown a lot and matured, becoming even more beautiful and even cuter...
My heart rushed to her with a scream, almost flying out of my chest!.. But there was no hurry. I didn’t know what the unpredictable Caraffa was up to this time. Therefore, I had to remain very calm, which was almost beyond my human strength. And only the fear of making an irreparable mistake held back my raging emotions that were rushing out like a hurricane. Happiness, horror, wild joy and fear of loss simultaneously tore me apart!.. Caraffa smiled contentedly at the effect produced... which immediately made me shudder inside. I didn’t even dare to think what could follow next... And I knew that if something terrible happened, the desire to protect Anna might be too strong to resist Karaffa... and I was panicky afraid that I wouldn’t be able to refuse him so that he didn't ask for it.
But, to my greatest surprise, his “surprise” turned out to be a real surprise!..
– Are you glad to see your daughter, Madonna Isidora? – Karaffa asked, smiling widely.
“It all depends on what comes next, Your Holiness...” I answered carefully. – But, of course, I’m incredibly happy!
“Well, enjoy the meeting, I’ll pick her up in an hour.” Nobody will bother you. And then I'll go get her. She'll go to a monastery - I think it's the best place for such a gifted girl as your daughter is.
– Monastery?!! But she was never a believer, Your Holiness, she hereditary Witch, and nothing in the world will force her to be different. This is who she is and she can never change. Even if you destroy her, she will still remain a Witch! Just like me and my mother. You can't make her a believer!
“What a child you are, Madonna Isidora!” Caraffa laughed sincerely. “No one is going to make her a “believer.” I think she can serve our holy church very well by being exactly who she is. And perhaps even more. I have far-reaching plans for your daughter...
– What do you mean, Your Holiness? And what does this have to do with the monastery? – I whispered with frozen lips.
I was shaking. All this didn’t fit in my head, and I didn’t understand anything yet, I just felt that Caraffa was telling the truth. Only one thing scared me half to death - what kind of “far-reaching” plans could this terrible man have for my poor girl?!..
– Calm down, Isidora, and stop expecting something terrible from me all the time! You provoke fate, you know... The fact is that the monastery I’m talking about is very difficult... And outside its walls, almost not a single soul knows about it. This is a monastery exclusively for Sorcerers and Witches. And it has stood for thousands of years. I've been there several times. I studied there... But, unfortunately, I didn’t find what I was looking for. They rejected me... - Caraffa thought for a moment and, to my surprise, suddenly became very sad. “But I’m sure they’ll like Anna.” And I’m also sure that they will have something to teach your talented daughter, Isidora.
– Are you talking about Meteora*, Your Holiness? – Knowing the answer in advance, I still asked.
Caraffa's eyebrows crawled up his forehead in surprise. Apparently he didn’t expect that I had heard about it...
– Do you know them? Have you been there?!..
– No, my father was there, Your Holiness. But he later taught me a lot (later I wildly regretted telling him this...). What do you want to teach my daughter there, Holiness?! And why?.. After all, in order to declare her a Witch, you already have enough evidence. Anyway, later you will try to burn her like everyone else, right?!..
Karaffa smiled again...
– Why did you cling to this stupid idea, Madonna? I have no intention of causing any harm to your sweet daughter! She can still serve us wonderfully! I have been looking for a very long time for the Sage, who is still just a child, to teach her everything that the “monks” in Meteora know. And so that she would then help me in search of sorcerers and witches, such as she herself once was. Only then will she be a witch from God.
Caraffa didn’t seem crazy, he WAS one... Otherwise it was impossible to accept what he was saying now! This was not normal, and therefore scared me even more.
– Forgive me if I misunderstood something, Your Holiness... But how can there be Witches from God?!..
- Well, of course, Isidora! – Caraffa laughed, sincerely amazed at my “ignorance”. – If she uses her knowledge and skill in the name of the church, it will come to her from God, since she will create in His name! Don't you understand this?..
No, I didn’t understand!.. And this was said by a man with a completely sick imagination, who, moreover, sincerely believed in what he was talking about!.. He was incredibly dangerous in his madness and, moreover, had unlimited power. His fanaticism crossed all boundaries, and someone had to stop him.
“If you know how to force us to serve the church, then why are you burning us?!..” I ventured to ask. – After all, what we possess cannot be purchased for any money. Why don't you appreciate this? Why do you continue to destroy us? If you wanted to learn something, why not ask to teach you?..