1. On the use of the term ‘chymistry,’ see William R. Newman and Lawrence M. Principe, ‘Alchemy vs. Chemistry: The Etymological Origins of a Historiographic Mistake,’Early Science and Medicine3, no. 1 (1998): 32–65.
2. Franciscus Sylvius,Praxeos medicae idea nova, Book X, proposition DLXXXVII, inOpera omnia(Leiden, 1679): ‘Quoniam igitur & qui reperiuntur in nobis Humoures varii, & qua assumuntur a nobis Alimenta, Medicamentaque multiplicia & innotescunt, & distinguuntur a nobis maxime ratione suorum Saporum; merito secundum ipsos etiam Mutationes plerasque in corpore nostro contingentes considerandas, deducendas, explicandasque judicavimus; Quin hactenus quoq; Conatibus nostris bono publico ac aegrorum solatio unice dicatis benedicente Deo non sine successu inter plurium contradictiones hisce fundamentis planioribus novum Medicum adificium coepimus.’ Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.
3. See E. D. Baumann,François Dele Boe Sylvius(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1949), 1–2.
4. Sylvius’s experimental demonstrations in 1639 even convinced an ardent sceptic, Johannes Walaeus, who then turned to producing experiments and tracts of his own supporting the circulation of the blood. See J. Schouten,Johannes Walaeus: zijn betekenis voor de verbreiding van de leer van de bloedsomloop(Assen: Van Gorcum, 1972), 14–19.
5. See Harold J. Cook,Matters of Exchange(New Haven, Conn.: Yale, 2007), 149.