qui - maria vita romeo

58 Alessandro Chiessi
e analysis of brutes—with the related Cartesianism—is troublesome
for the young Mandeville inasmuch as, in the eighth corollary of the
Disputatio de Chylosi Vitiata, 24 he writes that “Bruta non sentiunt.” 25 is
book is specifically a medical treatise about the digestive disorders—it is
precisely the thesis with which the young Mandeville graduates himself at
the University of Leiden 26 —but, on this occasion, he reiterates a previously
discussed concept. Although the issues about the soul and body ‘dualism’
are overshadowed, focusing attention on medicine and physiology in the
analysis of the digestion processes, here I can find those themes, which will
be deepened and analysed in the Treatise. e role of medicine in the treatments
of diseases besides having specific etiological aim, limited to a specific
disease, also assumes a general knowledge purpose, showing the functions
of the internal organs and so of the body. It is significant that the
young Mandeville, in this dissertation, notices hypo chondriacs suffering of
Philosophie, que ie cherchois.” R. Descartes, Discours de la méthode, vol. VI, p. 32, in Œuvres, cit.
(emphasis in the text); and at the same time cf. Id., Principia Philosophiae, cit., p. 8.
24 In his graduation thesis Mandeville, showing some possible signs of indigestion (“crudi -
tas”)—i.e. the slowness or weakness, the failure and the alteration—describes the physiological
process of digestion and, simultaneously, refutes some theories: that of the ancients which considered
the heat as the main cause and that which reckons movement as main principle of digestion.
Descartes, as one can read in his writings, seems to be at half way between these two positions, but
at the end considers the heat as source of the movement. Mandeville, for his part, looks on digestion
as consequence of a “fermentum” or “menstrum” into the stomach, composed by chyle and “animal
spirits.” is ferment, entering in the chewed food, soaks it through the quality of volatile acid.
Subsequently, in the identification of the causes of indigestion, he sees as possible motivations the
problems of stomach, the deterioration of ferments and the defects of food. e final part of the
dissertation, in order to produce a correct diagnosis, shows the possible manifestations of indigestion,
for giving a valid prognosis and effective treatment. e Disputatio, indeed, ends with a series
of medical recipes. It would be convenient to study the role of iatrochemistry and iatromechanics
in Mandeville’s medical thought. Cf. B. Mandeville, Disputatio medica inauguralis de Chylosi Vitiata.
Quam annuente divina gratia Ex auctoritate Magnifici Rectoris, D. Wolferdi Senguerdii, L.A.M.
Phil. & J. U. Doct. illiusque in Illustri Academiâ Lugd. Bat. Profess. ordinarii, celeberrimi, & c. Nec
non Amplissimi Senatûs Academici Consensu & Almae Facultatis Medicae Decreto, pro gradu doctoratus,
Summisque in Medicina Honorabilis ac Privilegiis ritè & legitimè consequendis, Publico examini
subjicit Bernardus de Mandeville, Rott.-Bat. Ad diem 30 Mart. horâ locoque solitis, Lugduni Batavorum,
Abrahamum Elzevirer, 1691 (hereafter quoted as Disputatio de Chylosi Vitiata). For an historical
discussion see: A.G. Debus, Chemistry, Alchemy and the New Philosophy, 1550-1700: studies in the
History of Science and Medicine, London, Variorum reprints, 1987.
25 Cf. Disputatio de Chylosi Vitiata, Corollarium VIII.
26 Cf. Treatise 1711, pp. 120-121; Treatise 1730, pp. 131-132.