Mechanism and Chemical Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England: Boyle’s Investigation of Ferments and Fermentation

Clericuzio, Antonio

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-7353-9_12

Antonio Clericuzio⁷

Part of the book series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences ((HPTL,volume 14))

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9 Citations

Abstract

In this paper I take into account Boyle’s explanation of vital phenomena, paying special attention to his work on fermentation. Boyle never published a specific work on ferments and fermentation, yet, this subject played a central part in his medical agenda. He pointed out that the understanding of ferments and fermentation would throw new light on physiological phenomena, notably on digestion. He was not isolated in his quest for the knowledge of fermentation: most early modern natural philosophers and physicians thoroughly investigated this topic providing different accounts of the fermentative process. The research on fermentation became an integrant part of the Oxford physiologists’ work on blood and respiration. In the first part of the paper, I examine the alchemical and Paracelsian roots of early modern research on fermentation, in the second, I investigate the chemical and medical work on fermentation carried out by the English physiologists (including Thomas Willis and the English Helmontians), as well as by Boyle and Newton.

Parts of this paper have been presented at a range of seminars and conferences. I would like to thank all the audiences for their questions and suggestions, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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Notes

1.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. 10, 540. On Boyle’s Notion of Nature, see Hunter and Davis 1996.
2.
See Clericuzio 1993.
3.
Boyle 1999–2000, The Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy (1663), vol. 3, 310–311.
4.
See Clericuzio 1998 and Clericuzio 2001.
5.
Boyle 1999–2000, Reason and Religion (1675), vol. 8, 259–261.
6.
Boyle 1999–2000, The Usefulnesse of Experimental Natural Philosophy (1663), vol, V, 253. In The Christian Virtuoso Boyle stated that the mind/ body union is not supernatural, but natural, though it is not mechanical. He styled it “supra-mechanical.” Boyle 1999–2000, vol. XII, 478. See Anstey 2000, 190–197. Boyle’s manuscripts on this subject were published in MacIntosh 2005, 246–255.
7.
Boyle 1999–2000, The Origine of Formes and Qualities (1666), vol. V, 326. Boyle articulated this view by stating that the corpuscles of second order have “their particles so minute and strongly coherent, that nature of her self does scarce ever tear them asunder, as we see, that Mercury and Gold may be successively made to put on a multitude of disguises, and yet so retain their nature, as to be reducible to their pristine forms.” Boyle 1999–2000, About The Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis (1674), vol, VIII, 113. On the reduction to the pristine state, see Meinel 1988; Clericuzio 2000:135–148; Newman 2006, 112–123; 190–198.
8.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. X, 366.
9.
See Clericuzio 2000, 133–135.
10.
See Boyle 1999–2000, The Usefulnesse of Experimental Natural Philosophy (1663), vol. III, 256–257. On Boyle’s intermediate causes, see Clericuzio 2000, 129–148 and Anstey 2014, 118–119. I disagree with Alan Chalmers 2012, 561, who maintains that Boyle “lacked appropriate notions of intermediate causes in chemistry.”.
11.
Bertoloni Meli 2011, 13–14.
12.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. XII, 447.
13.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. III, 247–8.
14.
Bertloni Meli 2011, 14.
15.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. XII, 449.
16.
Boyle 1999–2000, XII, 450.
17.
Boyle 1999–2000, XII, 471–2.
18.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol.XII, 473. Italics are Boyle’s. Hormetic (from the Greek όρμητικός) means having the property of exciting.
19.
On the living anatomy , see Pagel and Rattansi 1964. On Boyle’s medical agenda, see Kaplan 1993 and Hunter 1997. Kaplan and Hunter paid little or no attention to Boyle’s use of chemistry in medicine
20.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. X, 540.
21.
On early modern English medicine see Davis 1973; Webster 1975; Frank 1980; and Wear 2000. According to Davis 1973: 212, Harvey ’s (limited) use of fermentation to explain the motion of blood and the heart diastolic motion encouraged English physicians to pursue the study of blood fermentation.
22.
For the Paracelsian and Helmontian theories of fermentation see Pagel 1982, 79–87.
23.
Newman and Principe, 1998, 2001 and 2002; Newman 2006. Newman’s and Principe’s interpretation has been criticized in Vickers 2008. Newman’s response is found in Newman 2009. See also Moran 2005; and Principe 2012.
24.
Pereira and Spaggiari 1999, 32–36. For the philosophical and medical sources of the Testamentum see Pereira 2003.
25.
Pereira and Spaggiari 1999, 136. “Et cum illis [e.g. gold and silver] debes facere fermentacionem tui lapidis cum naturali coniunctione, et deinde habebit perfectam ingressionem in omni alio metallo per medium fermenti, quod traxit in naturam propinquam vere medicine, que participat cum essencia perfeccionis perfectorum et cum […] corruptione imperfectorum ad illam medicinam et fermentum.”
26.
Bono da Ferrara 1976, 143. “Del fermento dunque, senza il quale l’arte dell’Alchimia non si può finire e fare perfetta.”
27.
Bono da Ferrara 1976, 143. “…sì come il fermento della pasta vince la la pasta et a sé la converte sempre, così questa pietra converte a sé gli altri mettalli; e sì come una parte del fermento della pasta può convertire infinite parti della pasta a vicenda, e non esser convertito, e così questa pietra può convertire a sé la più parte de mettalli e non esser convertita.”
28.
Ruland 1964.
29.
Cf. Hirai 2005 and Shackelford 1998.
30.
The links between alchemy and Paracelsus have been stressed by Pagel 1958 and Bianchi 1994. Kahn has pointed out that alchemy and Paracelsianism merged in the second half of the 16th century; see Kahn 2007, 597.
31.
Paracelsus 1929, vol. I, 30; and vol. VIII, 187–8.
32.
Libavius 1597, 74. For Libavius, see Hannaway 1975 and Moran 2007.
33.
Castelli 1626, 154: “Idem spiritus acidus ille est, quem ventriculi Alchimistam vocat Paracelsus .” For Castelli, see Clericuzio 2010.
34.
Sennert 1641, 698. See Newman 2012, 119–121.
35.
On Angelo Sala see Gelman 1994.
36.
Sala 1647, 95. “Fermentatio igitur est motus quidam, seu alteratio, a calore interno, in humido agente inducta, qua diversae & inter se pugnantes, substantiae elementares, partim separantur, partim in unum nobiliorem mixtionis modum, ac unionem rediguntur, quod rerum fermentantium strepitu, pugna, & humidi turgescentia apparet, hac mediante res, ad subtiliores, spirituosas, & balsamicas, varieque operandi, & penetrandi virtutes exaltantur....”
37.
Sala 1647, 164
38.
Jorden 1631, 82. For Jorden, see Debus 1969.
39.
Billich 1646. “Omnis fere vita fermentum est. Nam quid aliud sit lactea illa spuma, ex qua nascimur? Nati sine fermento vitam non ducimus, sive valeamus, sive aegrotemus. […]Fermento cor pulsat, ateriae saliunt, venae bulliunt, cibus coquitur, sanguis conficitur, corpus alitur. Fermentum est, vel certe fermenti particeps, quod expiratur, quod expuitur, quod excreatur, quod expectoratur, quod per alvum, per vescicam, per nares, quod per uterum excernitur.”
40.
See Pagel 1982, 82. Billich 1646, 540 stated: “Fermentatio est motus terrae, vi ignis interni concitatae, ut beneficio aquae intermediae aerescat atque ignescat.”
41.
Van Helmont 1648, § 1, 111. “Notitia fermenti, ut nulla in Scholis jejunior, ita nulla utilior. Fermenti nomen, ignotum hactenus, nisi in panificio: cum attamen nulla in rebus fiat vicissitudo, aut transmutatio, per somniatum appetitum hyles: sed duntaxat solius fermenti opera.”
42.
Pagel 1982, 79–80. See also Giglioni 2000.
43.
van Helmont 1648, § 24–25, 36.
44.
van Helmont 1648, 218.
45.
van Helmont 1648, 220. For the Helmontian views of digestion see Multhauf 1955 and Clericuzio 2012.
46.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. III, 321.
47.
Starkey 2004, 25; 80. For Starkey, see Newman 1994.
48.
Royal Society Boyle Papers (hereinafter BP), 8, 140v–146v.
49.
As Webster put it, Worsley’s project of manufacturing saltpetre, which began in the mid-1640s, “was supported wholeheartedly by the Hartlib circle and it may well have provided one of the main incentives for Boyle’s interest in experimental chemistry,” Webster 1975, 379.
50.
Worsely 1653, 39/1/11A. See Newman and Principe, 2002, 240. According to Newman and Principe, Worsley’s text was composed in 1653.
51.
See Boyle 1999–2000, vol. III, 355–6 and BP 26, fols 96–97 (workdiary April 1657).
52.
Boyle 1999, vol. 3, 350–7; 361.
53.
BP 25, p. 349; Boyle 1999–2000, vol. III, 321–322.
54.
BP, 28, fol. 403.
55.
BP, 26, fol. 138 (workdiary: early 1670s).
56.
BP 44, fol. 48.
57.
Webster 1975, 139.
58.
See Frank 1980, 107.
59.
Willis, 1659; English translation Willis 1684, 1. On Willis’ doctrine of fevers see Bates 1981.
60.
Willis 1684, 8.
61.
Willis 1684, 3.
62.
Willis 1684, 4–7. For affinity in early17^th-century chemistry see Newman 2012. I agree with Newman’s argument that affinity had been firmly and explicitly espoused by at least one highly prominent chymist almost a century before the publication of Geoffroy’s Table des differents rapports (100).
63.
Willis 1684, 11–12.
64.
Willis 1684, 12.
65.
Willis 1684, 53.
66.
Willis 1684, 50–52.
67.
Willis 1684, 53.
68.
Willis 1981, 69.
69.
Glisson 1654, 366. “Fermentatio autem est calor intus exoriens, ob luctam inter spiritus & partes crassiores; dum illi conantur sese expandere, atque avolare, hae vero illi nisui adversantur.”
70.
Charleton 1659, 62, 65, 100.
71.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. III, 319.
72.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. III, 355.
73.
Greatrakes 1666, 71. On Greatrakes see Elmer 2013.
74.
Boyle 2001, vol. 2,506.
75.
Boyle 2001, vol. 3, 82–83.
76.
Boyle 2001, vol. 3, 93–107. For Stubbe, see Jacob 1983. On the relationship between Boyle and Stubbe see Jacob 1977.
77.
Stubbe 1666, 10–11.
78.
Boyle 2001, vol.3, 103.
79.
Boyle 2001, vol. 3, 159.
80.
Boyle 2001, vol. 3, 104. “What you mention of Morbifick Ferments I know divers Ingenious Readers will approve and they seeme to be of good Use in the explication of Diseases. But whether all Diseases require Ferments, & whether your Doctrine about them be as well applicable to the rest, as to some, is a Disquisition that I shall willingly leave to those Learned Men of you Faculty that our Age & Country abounds with.”
81.
Boyle 1999, vol. 3, 321.
82.
Frank 1980.
83.
Warton 1761, 208. Cf. Guerlac 1953 and Frank 1980, 115–139; 221–245.
84.
Mayow 1674, 48; Mayow 1926, 34. “With regard to the spirit of the chemists, which usually leads their band of elements, I am quite unable to understand what they mean by the very grand word spirit.” Cf. Frank 1980, 266.
85.
Frank 1980, 268–269.
86.
Willis 1684, 3.
87.
Willis 1684, 21–23.
88.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. XII, 32.
89.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. X, 5. For the composition of, and the material related to, Boyle’s History of blood, see Knight and Hunter 2007. For the manuscripts, see Boyle 2013, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1871712/.
90.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. X.
91.
Boyle 1999–2000, vol. X, 387.
92.
Boyle 1999–2000,vol.X, 42.
93.
For Thomson and the Helmontians’ critique of traditional medicine, see Cook 1986, 145–162. Clericuzio 1993, 319–26; Wear 2000, 368–72; 416–422.
94.
Thomson 1665, 4–6.
95.
Thomson 1666, 112–113.
96.
Thomson 1670, 6.
97.
Simpson 1665, 9–10.
98.
Simpson 1675.
99.
Newton sent “An Hypothesis explaining the Properties of Light” to Oldenburg on 7 December 1675. His paper was read at a meeting of the Society on 9 December 1675. Newton 1959, 362–386.
100.
Newton 1952, 399.

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Clericuzio, A. (2016). Mechanism and Chemical Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England: Boyle’s Investigation of Ferments and Fermentation. In: Distelzweig, P., Goldberg, B., Ragland, E. (eds) Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7353-9_12

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