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From Food to Elements and Humors

Digestion in Late Renaissance Galenism
  • Elisabeth Moreau
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Nutrition and Nutritive Soul in Aristotle and Aristotelianism
This chapter is in the book Nutrition and Nutritive Soul in Aristotle and Aristotelianism

Abstract

In late Renaissance medicine, the example of digestion was frequently invoked to prove the elemental composition of the human body. Food was considered as being decomposed in its first elements by the stomach, and digested into a thick juice which is assimilated by the liver and the body parts. Such a process points to the structure of the human body into four elements that are transformed into different types of humors during several stages of “concoction”. This chapter examines the Galenic interpretation of digestion expounded by the French physician Jean Fernel (1497-1558) in his Physiologia (1567). In this treatise, Fernel states the body composition into elemental portions, while stressing the role of the “innate heat” as the physiological counterpart of the body’s essence or “substantial form”. He applies this view in his account of digestion, where he states that the conversion of food follows the rule of “mixture”. This chapter aims to explore how Fernel applies his interpretation of elements and innate heat to the process of digestion, as well as his sources in Galen’s De facultatibus naturalibus, Avicenna’s Canon, and Aristotle’s Meteorologica. It first examines the role of the natural soul and its “nourishing” faculties in nutrition as a physiological function. It then considers the role of elements, humors and innate heat during the “concoction” of food in the stomach, liver and veins.

Abstract

In late Renaissance medicine, the example of digestion was frequently invoked to prove the elemental composition of the human body. Food was considered as being decomposed in its first elements by the stomach, and digested into a thick juice which is assimilated by the liver and the body parts. Such a process points to the structure of the human body into four elements that are transformed into different types of humors during several stages of “concoction”. This chapter examines the Galenic interpretation of digestion expounded by the French physician Jean Fernel (1497-1558) in his Physiologia (1567). In this treatise, Fernel states the body composition into elemental portions, while stressing the role of the “innate heat” as the physiological counterpart of the body’s essence or “substantial form”. He applies this view in his account of digestion, where he states that the conversion of food follows the rule of “mixture”. This chapter aims to explore how Fernel applies his interpretation of elements and innate heat to the process of digestion, as well as his sources in Galen’s De facultatibus naturalibus, Avicenna’s Canon, and Aristotle’s Meteorologica. It first examines the role of the natural soul and its “nourishing” faculties in nutrition as a physiological function. It then considers the role of elements, humors and innate heat during the “concoction” of food in the stomach, liver and veins.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Abbreviations VII
  4. Introduction IX
  5. Aristotle
  6. ‘Most Natural Among the Functions of Living Things’ 1
  7. Method and Nutritive Soul in Aristotle’s De Anima II,4 21
  8. Nutrition and Hylomorphism in Aristotle 43
  9. The Female Contribution to Generation and Nutritive Soul in Aristotle’s Embryology 63
  10. Why do not Animals Grow on Without End? 85
  11. Looking for the Formative Power in Aristotle’s Nutritive Soul 101
  12. Aristotle and his Medical Precursors on Digestion and Nutrition 127
  13. Aristotle on the Role of Heat in Plant Life 153
  14. Aristotelianism
  15. Reading and Sleep in Pseudo-Aristotle, Problemata XVIII,7 173
  16. Dividing an Apple 197
  17. Is Nutrition a Sufficient Condition for Life? 221
  18. Digestive Problems 259
  19. Magnetism and Nutrition 285
  20. From Food to Elements and Humors 319
  21. Standstill or Death 339
  22. Antonio Ponce de Santacruz on Nutrition and the Question of Emergence 355
  23. Index locorum 379
  24. Index rerum 405
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110690552-016

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Abbreviations VII
  4. Introduction IX
  5. Aristotle
  6. ‘Most Natural Among the Functions of Living Things’ 1
  7. Method and Nutritive Soul in Aristotle’s De Anima II,4 21
  8. Nutrition and Hylomorphism in Aristotle 43
  9. The Female Contribution to Generation and Nutritive Soul in Aristotle’s Embryology 63
  10. Why do not Animals Grow on Without End? 85
  11. Looking for the Formative Power in Aristotle’s Nutritive Soul 101
  12. Aristotle and his Medical Precursors on Digestion and Nutrition 127
  13. Aristotle on the Role of Heat in Plant Life 153
  14. Aristotelianism
  15. Reading and Sleep in Pseudo-Aristotle, Problemata XVIII,7 173
  16. Dividing an Apple 197
  17. Is Nutrition a Sufficient Condition for Life? 221
  18. Digestive Problems 259
  19. Magnetism and Nutrition 285
  20. From Food to Elements and Humors 319
  21. Standstill or Death 339
  22. Antonio Ponce de Santacruz on Nutrition and the Question of Emergence 355
  23. Index locorum 379
  24. Index rerum 405
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