CHAPTER XXXI
CHEMISTRY AND EXPERIMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY
The experiments which were carried out by Antonius
Musa Brasavola, in the early part of the sixteenth century,
upon animals and criminals, for the purpose of learning
the effects produced by certain drugs when administered
internally, afford one of the earliest instances of a genuine
experimental pharmacology. The account of these experiments,
which was published at Rome, in 1536, under the
title "Examen omnium simplicium, quorum usus est in
publicis officinis," deserves honorable mention. An even
more remarkable evidence of the research spirit which was
abroad at that period is to be found in the work done by
Fortunatus Fedelis, a native of Palermo, Sicily, and an
ardent champion of the direct method of observation as
applied to therapeutics.
Van Helmont, of whose life and contributions to the science of medicine I now propose to furnish a sketch, represents in a certain sense Paracelsus' successor; and, as a matter of fact, he was even more closely associated with the development of chemistry as an independent science than was his predecessor.
Jean Baptiste Van Helmont was born at Brussels in 1577. His parents, who belonged to the nobility, possessed ample financial means and were therefore able to give their son every opportunity to secure a liberal education. While still a lad he enrolled himself among the students of the University of Louvain, and advanced so rapidly in his studies that, already at the early age of seventeen, he had passed all the examinations required of applicants for the degree of Master of Philosophy. He was not willing,
