Johannes (Jan) Baptista van Helmont Biography

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World of Scientific Discovery on Johannes (Jan) Baptista van Helmont

Jan van Helmont lived and worked during a unique period of history--the dawn of the scientific revolution. As Europe began to shrug off the old-fashioned superstitions of the Middle Ages, scientists learned how to conduct experiments and make rational observations, rather than believing in religious phenomena to explain the world around them. However, the clash between science and faith eventually caused difficulty for van Helmont. He was interrogated by the notorious Spanish Inquisition for giving scientific explanations for supernatural events.

Born into a noble family, van Helmont became a medical doctor in 1599. He often treated people for free, refusing to profit from the misery of his fellow human beings. In 1609, after extensive travels and medical experience (including treating victims of bubonic ), he turned down several attractive job offers and devoted himself to pure research on the principles of nature.

In many respects, van Helmont followed the teachings of Paracelsus (1493-1541), a Swiss physician of the early 1500s who pioneered the use of alchemy to prepare medicine instead of trying to make gold. Like Paracelsus, van Helmont was interested in alchemy and mysticism. He also believed in the fallacious theory of spontaneous generation--that organisms can spring to life from decaying materials such as dusty grain or old rags.

But van Helmont disagreed with Paracelsus' belief in the ancient Greek theory that all matter is composed of four elements (earth, air, fire, and water). Instead, van Helmont asserted that the basic element of the universe was water, an idea that went even further back to the Greek philosopher Thales, who lived around 600 b.c. Van Helmont, to prove his theory in a scientific manner, grew a willow tree in a tub for five years, giving it nothing but pure water and even protecting it from dust in the air. He weighed the tree and the soil carefully before starting the experiment and then again at the end. Although the soil lost practically no weight, the tree had gained more than 160 pounds (72 kg), which van Helmont attributed, mistakenly, to the water he had added. Because this experiment represented the first application of quantitative methods to a biological question, van Helmont is sometimes called the father of biochemistry.

Van Helmont also discovered gases as a class of substances and first coined the term gas (from the phonetic spelling of the Greek word chaos) to describe vapors that differed from ordinary air. He applied scientific techniques to study several gases, most notably gas sylvestre, which he produced from burning wood. This gas is now known to be carbon dioxide. Van Helmont realized that carbon dioxide was also produced by other chemical processes, such as the fermentation of wine and the reaction of acids with limestone and other carbonates. He also described carbon monoxide, chlorine gas, digestive gases, sulfur dioxide, and a "vital gas" in the blood, and he showed that a burning candle would use up air in an enclosed space. In these studies, van Helmont paved the way for more definitive chemical analysis of gases by Joseph Priestley, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Joseph Black, and other scientists who had better apparatus to work with.

Another popular belief of van Helmont's day was transmutation, which held that one metal could be changed into another or destroyed altogether. Relying upon scientific methods, van Helmont refuted this idea by showing that dissolved metals could be recovered in their original quantity. His insight was a forerunner of physical laws regarding the indestructibility of matter. Van Helmont also studied the behavior of pendulums and recommended that they be used to measure time.

Much of van Helmont's work, however, still focused on medicine and health. He demonstrated that acid is the stomach 's digestive agent, and he suspected that the substance was hydrochloric acid. Through ingenious observations, van Helmont identified many causes of asthma. He also studied the symptoms of bronchitis, tuberculosis, epilepsy, and hysteria, and he diagnosed illness by analyzing the specific gravity of urine. Van Helmont realized that fever is part of the body's natural healing process. Instead of the traditional treatment of bloodletting or purging, he prescribed remedies according to the specific disease, its cause, and the bodily organ being affected. In fact, van Helmont's medical research introduced the concept that diseases are caused by specific harmful agents, rather than by a general imbalance of the body's "humors," or fluids.

Throughout his scientific career, van Helmont clung to his religious and mystical beliefs which, unfortunately, differed from those of the Catholic authorities. Spain had occupied the Flemish territories, and the Church still had the force of the law behind it. During the early 1600s, van Helmont was embroiled in a controversy over a pamphlet he had published on curative ointments. He was condemned for heresy by the General Inquisition of Spain, a special committee set up to punish those who contradicted the Catholic Church. Van Helmont was also denounced by the University of Louvain's medical and theological faculties. Eventually, he was detained and interrogated, then kept under house arrest for years. Perhaps because of this experience, van Helmont published little of his work. On his deathbed, he gave his writings to his son to edit and publish.