Journal: | Quimica nova |
Database: | PERIÓDICA |
System number: | 000196616 |
ISSN: | 0100-4042 |
Authors: | Porto, Paulo Alves1 |
Institutions: | 1Universidade de Sao Paulo, Instituto de Quimica, Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo. Brasil |
Year: | 2001 |
Season: | Mar-Abr |
Volumen: | 24 |
Number: | 2 |
Pages: | 286-292 |
Country: | Brasil |
Language: | Portugués |
Document type: | Biografía |
Approach: | Histórico |
English abstract | The word gas was coined by the "chemical philosopher" Joan Baptista Van Helmont (1579 ¾ 1644) to name a very broad concept in his chemico-medical system. Eventually, some physicians who followed Helmontian ideas adopted the concept. The present paper aims to analyze the reception of the original idea of gas by an English Helmontian physician, George Thomson (1619 ¾ 1677). Thomson wrote that the "material cause" of the plague was a gas, and compared it to the "Gas of sulphur". He also related the human archeus to a gas, and explained some observations in the laboratory in terms of production of gases. We observe, however, that Thomson was not as interested as Van Helmont in discussing details about the structure of the matter. Thus, gas did not have the same relevance in Thomson's work as it had in Van Helmont's |
Disciplines: | Historia |
Keyword: | Biografía, Historia de la ciencia, Gas, George Thomson, Joan Baptista Van Helmont, Producción de gases |
Keyword: | History, Biography, History of science, George Thomson, Gas, Joan Baptista Van Helmont, Production of gases |
Full text: | Texto completo (Ver HTML) |