ABSTRACT
In going through the principal writers of the XVIIth century one perceives the preparation for the great vitalist reaction of the XVIIIth century, more particularly in the writings of Van Helmont, Plempius, Ettmuller, Sylvius, Riolan and many others. The Iatro-chemical system, was opposed, as may be readily understood, to others; but became combined with the Iatro-mechanical doctrine, especially in the XVIIIth century. It was to the three great philosophers, Van Helmont, Descartes and Leibnitz, that the three great schools of medicine of the XVIIth century owed their formation, continuing into the XVIIIth and XlXth centuries we refer to the Iatro-chemical, the Iatro-mechanical, and the Vitalistic and Animistic Schools. For Van Helmont the efficient power is the ferment governing all the acts of living beings. Van Helmont has been accused of mysticism similar to that of Paracelsus and Cardan, but here again a mistake has been made.
