Sanctorius’s Galenism

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter deals with Sanctorius’s intellectual background and places his book De statica medicina within the framework of contemporary Galenic medicine. Usually, the book is celebrated for its innovative quantitative approach to medicine yet read in isolation from its broader context. However, as I will show, an analysis of this context is crucial to understanding how Sanctorius developed his novel ideas and revised the medical knowledge of his day. Of particular importance in this regard are the dietetic doctrine of the “six non-natural things” and the concept of insensible perspiration, an invisible excretion of the human body. Potential relations of Sanctorius’s notions to the doctrine of the ancient medical school of the Methodists and to corpuscular ideas are also scrutinized. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the De statica medicina itself, focusing on the conceptual backdrop against which Sanctorius developed his weighing procedures, the results of which he presented in the book. References to Sanctorius’s other publications help set his ideas in the broader context of his endeavors and contribute to an understanding of the theoretical context in which the De statica medicina emerged.