Early concepts of nutrition, digestion, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and their treatment: from Paracelsus to Helmont and Descartes

Abstract

Paracelsus took over the responsibility for the intellectual reconstruction of Western medicine of the 16th century. As an alchemist physician, he supported chemical pharmacology and therapy and opposed medical doctrine of that time. His writings were numerous and included Prognostication, which separated chemistry as a science from alchemy. His research reflected a deep knowledge of science and principles of magnetism. Being a member of the Hermetic cult, he strongly supported the «three principles» of Arab alchemists, based on the use of mercury (characterized by fluidity, heaviness and «metallicity»), sulfur (ability to burn) and salt (power and relative chemical inertness). Paracelsus believed that the main positive aim of alchemy was the discovery of drugs for the treatment of diseases; thus he became a leader in applying the scientific principles to medicine. In this respect, his efforts to combine iatrochemistry and alchemy ultimately culminated in the creation of the foundations for the development of modern pharmacology. In fact, it is not surprising that he is known as the forerunner of chemical pharmacology and therapy, as well as the most original thinker in the field of medicine in the 16th century.
 In the 17th century, as a student of Paracelsus, van Helmont believed that every material process of the body is determined by a special life principle. With the exception of a few exotic theological views, van Helmont was known as a chemist and a first-class scientist. Thus, his ideas that all physiological processes are enzymatic reactions, and there is a special digestive substance (acid) in the stomach, turned out to be prophetic, but it took three centuries to substantiate them from the scientific point of view.
 The interest of the philosopher René Descartes (1596 — 1650) in stomach reflects his intellectual quest to determine the physical location of human soul. As a supporter of the iatromathematical school, Descartes viewed the human body as a material machine, the functions of which were directed by the rational spirit and, as later determined by the researcher, were contained in the pineal gland. The idea that belly or solar plexus is a source of the soul was a part of a widespread desire to know the location of human soul and its «secret».