A Qualitative Content Analysis of Identity Development Indicators in Gap Year Alumni Survey Responses

Emerging adolescence is a stage of development between adolescence and adulthood when young people are most concerned with personal identity development. During this time of life, young people have several postsecondary education choices; such as attending college, entering the work force immediately, or embracing an alternative educational experience such as a Gap Year. The Gap Year originated in Great Britain and is gaining momentum in the United States. A Gap Year has potential to be a transformative educational experience for emerging adolescents, particularly related to identity development. The purpose of this research was to explore indicators of identity development in a set of 419 open-ended responses to a question in a national Gap Year alumni survey that asked, “What skills or knowledge did you acquire as a result of your Gap Year?” Chickering and Reisser’s framework of identity development provided the structure for the analysis, and Qualitative Content Analysis was employed as the method. Analysis showed indicators of alumni-perceived gains, affiliated primarily with initial stages of identity development. Analysis also indicated alumni-perceived gains in comprehensive stages of identity development that are dependent on development in initial stages. This study contributes to the limited research on Gap Year experiences by illuminating the identity development potential of Gap Year programming. It also indicates the need for further original research focused on the identity development potential of the Gap Year

Reforming the Prisca Medicina: Libavius’ Axioms of Elements and Mixture

Within the field of the history of alchemy and medicine, this chapter is centered on the physiological theory of the German alchemist physician Andreas Libavius (c.1550-1616). It aims at appraising the connection between his alchemical and medical views in the explanation of elements as the ultimate components of the body. Though Libavius did not publish any systematic treatise on physiology, it is possible to retrace his medical theory through the works previous to his famous Alchymia. In this respect, Libavius provided a prolific interpretation of Aristotelian theory of matter-form, Galenic medicine, and medieval alchemy in De medicina veterum tam Hippocratica quam Hermetica (Frankfurt, 1599). In addition to the general context of Libavius’ attacks on Paracelsianism, this chapter discusses his interpretation of elements, mixture and quintessence as key features of a reformed prisca medicina

From Food to Elements and Humors: Digestion in Late Renaissance Galenism

In late Renaissance medicine, the example of digestion was frequently invoked to prove the elemental composition of the human body. Food was considered as being decomposed in its first elements by the stomach, and digested into a thick juice, which was assimilated by the liver and the body parts. Such a process points to the structure of the human body into four elements that are transformed into different types of humors during several stages of “concoction”. This chapter examines the Galenic interpretation of digestion expounded by the French physician Jean Fernel (1497–1558) in his Physiologia (1567). In this treatise, Fernel states the body composition into elemental portions, while stressing the role of the “innate heat” as the physiological counterpart of the body’s essence or “substantial form”. He applies this view in his account of digestion, where he states that the conversion of food follows the rule of “mixture”. This chapter aims to explore how Fernel applies his interpretation of elements and innate heat to the process of digestion, as well as his sources in Galen’s De facultatibus naturalibus, Avicenna’s Canon and Aristotle’s Meteorologica. It first examines the role of the natural soul and its “nourishing” faculties in nutrition as a physiological function. It then considers the role of elements, humors and innate heat during the “concoction” of food in the stomach, liver and veins

Balsam

Balsam traditionally refers to a natural gum with healing properties, obtained from a Middle Eastern tree (Commiphora opobalsamum) and often combined with other resins such as myrrh and turpentine. In early modern medicine, Paracelsus and his disciples gave it a metaphorical sense indicating either the physiological humor of life or an oily distillate

Temperament and the Senses: The Taste, Odor and Color of Drugs in Late-Renaissance Galenism

According to the medical tradition, the temperament of bodies came from the balance of their primary qualities – hot, cold, dry, and moist. However, physicians associated additional sensory properties with temperament in the field of pharmacology. These sensations included taste, color, and odor, which allow an appraisal of the constitution and active powers of drugs. The present paper examines this theme in late-Renaissance medicine, through the accounts of the French physician Jean Fernel (ca. 1497–1558) and the Italian physician Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603). As will be shown, their respective interpretations of drug “faculties” offered original views on the relationship between temperament, sensory properties, and matter theories. Such discussions, in turn, revealed the Renaissance reception of Arabic-Latin pharmacology, Galenic medicine, and the Aristotelian physics of matter and form

Vegetal Analogy in Early Modern Medicine: Generation as Plant Cutting in Sennert’s Early Treatises (1611–1619)

This chapter examines the use of vegetal analogy in late Renaissance physiology through the case of the German physician Daniel Sennert (1572–1637). It is centered on Sennert’s explanation of generation, in particular the transmission of life through the vegetative soul within the seed, as developed in his early works on medicine and alchemy, the Institutionum medicinae libri V (1611) and De chymicorum...liber (1619). This chapter first summarizes Sennert’s account of generation and the seed’s “formative force” according to Aristotle and Galen, as well as his appraisal of the medical debates on the origin of the seed’s soul and form. Then, the next part explores Sennert’s own interpretation of the origin of forms, for which plant physiology served as a common denominator of his medical, alchemical and theological inclinations. Finally, this chapter considers how Sennert attempted to harmonize his reasoning with the Paracelsian account of generation, seed and life

Innate Heat

Innate heat is a fundamental concept in Galenic medicine, referring to a physiological heat proper to living beings. Originating in the heart, it takes part in the vital and organic functions of the human body. As instrument of the soul, it animates the body in a similar way to a bodily flame. Its nature and role is bound up with the definition of life within a theoretical framework combining natural philosophy and medicine. Consequently, physiological debates on innate heat often converged on cosmological, chymical, and embryological considerations on the origin, composition, and transmission of life

Combining Atomism with Galenic Medicine: The Physiological Theory of Isaac Beeckman (1616-1627)

Although he obtained a medical degree at the University of Caen in 1618, Isaac Beeckman never practised medicine. Instead, he developed an atomistic conception of Galenic physiology by discussing, throughout his notebook, the constituents and functioning of the living body. Interestingly, Beeckman applied his atomistic interpretation to the notion of temperament as the balanced proportion of elemental qualities, which defined the state of health. In this chapter, it is shown how his atomistic views on health and temperament amalgamated the Galenic theory of elements, mixture, and digestion. In appraising related interpretations of the body by late Renaissance novatores, Beeckman proposed an original theory of the organism, which put forward a mechanistic conception of metabolism as characterized by the rarefaction and condensation of atomic matter

Atoms, Mixture, and Temperament in Early Modern Medicine: The Alchemical and Mechanical Views of Sennert and Beeckman

Centred on the eclectic sources of early modern neo-atomistic medicine, this chapter examines the physiological theory of German alchemist Daniel Sennert (1572–1637) and Dutch engineer Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637). Both university-trained physicians, they followed Galenic medicine in explaining the structure and functioning of the human body at the level of its smallest components. However, they interpreted the traditional theory of elements and mixture into atomistic terms by postulating the discrete structure of matter into particles, minima, and atoms. In exploring Sennert’s Institutiones medicinae (1620), De chymicorum … liber (1629), and Beeckman’s notebook (ca. 1616–1620), I consider their explanations of elements and mixture in relation to the physiological notion of temperament. In doing so, I look at the medical sources that Sennert and Beeckman used in support of their atomistic claims, from Galen and Avicenna to late Renaissance physicians such as Jean Fernel. This leads me to explore the common and distinct features of their interpretations in comparison with Santorio Santori’s theory of elements and mixture in Methodus vitandorum (1603)