Helmont, Jan Baptista Van

Helmont, Jan Baptista van (yän bäptĭs`tä vän hĕl`mônt), 1577–1644, Flemish physician, chemist, and physicist. He attributed physiological changes to chemical causes, but his conclusions were colored by his speculative mysticism. He discovered carbon dioxide, distinguished gases as a class of substances (as contrasted with solids and liquids), and is credited with introducing the term gas in its present scientific sense. His chief work is Ortus medicinae (1648).

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Helmont, Jan Baptista van

(born Jan. 12, 1580, Brussels, Belg.—died Dec. 30, 1644, Vilvoorde, Spanish Netherlands) Belgian chemist, physiologist, and physician. Though he tended to mysticism, he was a careful observer and exact experimenter. The first to recognize gases other than air, he coined the word gas and discovered that the “wild spirits” (carbon dioxide) produced by burning charcoal and by fermenting grape juice were the same. For applying chemical principles to digestion and nutrition, he has been called the “father of biochemistry.” His collected works were published in 1648.

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Helmont, Jan Baptista Van 

Born in January 1579, in Brussels; died Dec. 30, 1644, in Vilvorde, near Brussels. Dutch naturalist, one of the representatives of iatrochemis-try.

Helmont was the first to conduct experiments in the nourishment processes of plants. His work became the foundation of the so-called aqueous theory of plant nourishment. Despite its inaccuracy, this theory regarded plant life as a process taking place totally within the realm of material forces and thus dealt a blow to idealistic and religious concepts. Helmont assumed that the decisive function in digestion was performed by the acid of stomach juices. Hence he proposed to use alkalis to treat diseases resulting from excess acids in the stomach. He introduced the term “gas” into chemistry. He held alchemistic positions on a number of questions; for example, he thought it possible to convert base metals, such as mercury and lead, into gold with the aid of the so-called philosopher’s stone. He recognized spontaneous generation, which at that time was a very progressive act. Helmont adhered to the vitalist concept that life processes are regulated by special “life spirits” (archai).

WORKS

Ortus medicinae, new ed. Amsterdam, 1652.

REFERENCES

Menshutkin, B. N. Khimiia i puti ee razvitiia, Moscow-Leningrad, 1937.
Spiess, G. A. J. B. van Helmont’s System der Medizin. Frankfurt am Main, 1840.