Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580–1644) used experimental techniques, such as growing a willow for 5 years, and showed it increased mass, while the soil showed a trivial decrease in comparison. He attributed the increase of mass to the absorption of water. His notes also describe a recipe for mice (a piece of soiled cloth, plus wheat, for 21 days) and scorpions (basil, placed between two bricks and left in sunlight). Remember that you use a ‘mouse’ to connect to your computer 😏 The artist Della Porta, a believer in the Doctrine of Signatures, published several examples in his Phytognomonica, in…
You must be logged in to view this content Press Here
Comments are closed.