par Moreau, Elisabeth
Référence History of Science Society - HSS Annual Meeting (3-6 Nov 2016: Atlanta, USA)
Publication Non publié, 2016
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : The notion of stomach as a site of digestion gave rise to numerous analogies and metaphors in early modern medicine and chymistry. On the one hand, Paracelsian philosophers proposed an extensive definition of the stomach as the organic site of chymical separation, associated to its inner archeus. Such description was spread by Danish physician Petrus Severinus in his Idea medicinæ philosophicæ (1571), following a “vital anatomy” centered on the invisible composition and transformation of bodies. His approach minimized the properly anatomical nature of the stomach in favor of its chymical function of separating nourishment from waste, by means of the three principles and the mechanical spirits. On the other hand, non-Paracelsian philosophers might favor medieval alchemy for its metaphoric description of the transmutational work as coction, digestion and nourishment. German physician Andreas Libavius considered this mere analogy between physiological and transmutational processes as a fruitful escape from the Paracelsian system, fully compatible with Galenic medicine. In his famous Alchymia (1606), he supported the analogy between the stomach and the chymist’s vessel, covering a sophisticated range of practical operations under the term of “digestion”. By comparing Severinus’ and Libavius’ views on the stomach, this paper aims at exploring the diverse chymical modalities of digestion, from coagulation involved in the assimilation of food into the bodily part, to the transmutation of metals.