Van Helmont, Chemist, Physician, Philosopher and Mystic

Maimonides (1138-1204): rabbi, physician and philosopher.

William Prout: early 19th century physician-chemist.

In the early 19th century, the discoveries of new substances in the healthy and diseased body spawned a search for chemical explanations for physiologic phenomena to guide medical diagnosis and control therapy. William Prout's work on the nature and treatment of diseases of the urinary organs established his reputation as one of Britain's most distinguished physiological chemists. Prout was ver...

Archaeologica Medica: XXIX.-Arnald of Villanova, the Mystic Physician.

ARCHIEOLOGICA MEDICA. XXIX.-ARNALD OF VILLANOVA, THE MYSTIC PHYSICIAN. DR. LALANDE1 has recently done good service by drawing attention to the history of ArnLId of Villaliova, one of the few great medical names which emerge from the mass of ignorance and credulity marking the thirteenth century in Europe. Born in Provence, probably at Villeneuve-Loubet, in the arrondissement of Grasse, at some ...

Alexander Marcet (1770-1822), physician and animal chemist.

ALEXANDER John Gaspard Marcet1 was born in Geneva in the year 1770. His father, who was a merchant of Huguenot descent,2 wished him to follow the family business, but the young Alexander had no liking for commerce. Instead he decided to train for a career in the law, but before he could complete his studies he became involved in the disturbed political situation which arose in Geneva after the ...

Van Gogh's Physician

On December 24, 1888, a patient was admitted to the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Arles, France, brought in by the police because of reports that he had cut off his ear and given it to a woman. The patient was the Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh. The doctor on call was Dr. Felix Rey, a young “interne en medicine,” age 21 (Figure 1). Van Gogh had mutilated the lower part of his ear. Dr. Rey had earlier...