{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T05:13:29Z","timestamp":1788412409275,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":12,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,1]],"date-time":"2016-09-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1472688000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Around the year 1643, Joan Baptista van Helmont, a Flemish chemist, alchemist and physician who had devised what he claimed to be a new form of medicine, proposed a \u2018challenge\u2019 to traditional Galenic physicians to compare treatment of fever by traditional methods and by a regime which did not involve bloodletting and purging. Two groups of patients were to be treated and \u2018casting of lots\u2019 was to be used \u2013 in some way not specified in detail \u2013 to decide who received which treatment. This \u2018challenge\u2019 has been regarded as the first proposal for the use of randomisation in a clinical trial.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>This paper explains the background to the challenge and discusses what can be deduced from Helmont's text about the details of how he proposed that the \u2018trial\u2019 was to be carried out. It concludes that internal evidence in Helmont's writings makes it certain that no such \u2018trial\u2019 was ever conducted. It seems that the \u2018challenge\u2019 was probably a rhetorical device to support Helmont's vehement criticism of traditional Galenic medicine and its practitioners, and, in particular, to emphasise his absolute opposition to the use of bloodletting as a medical treatment. An appendix includes a short summary of Helmont's theories of the origins of disease and transcriptions of the passages of Helmont's Latin text translated in the article.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4997\/jrcpe.2016.313","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,28]],"date-time":"2017-06-28T09:22:30Z","timestamp":1498641750000},"page":"206-213","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Van Helmont'S Proposal for a Randomised Comparison of Treating Fevers with or without Bloodletting and Purging"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"46","author":[{"given":"IML","family":"Donaldson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Honorary Librarian, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Edinburgh; Emeritus Professor, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh; Emeritus Fellow, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"The French Paracelsians","author":"Debus AJ","year":"1991"},{"key":"bibr2-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"Europe's Physician. The Various Life of Sir Theodore de Mayerne","author":"Trevor-Roper H","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr3-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"Ortus medicin\u00e6. Id est, initia physici\u00e6 inaudita. Progressus medicin\u00e6 novus, in morborum ultionem, ad vitam longam \/ authore, Ioanne Baptista van Helmont. Edente authoris filio, Francisco Mercurio van Helmont, cum ejus pr\u00e6fatione ex Belgico translata","author":"van Helmont JB","year":"1648"},{"key":"bibr4-jrcpe.2016.313","unstructured":"Helmont Pagel W. (Joan) Baptista Van Johannes. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. CG Gillespie. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons; 1972. VI: 253\u20139."},{"key":"bibr5-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"Joan Baptista van Helmont: reformer of science and medicine","author":"Pagel W","year":"1982"},{"key":"bibr6-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"The English Paracelsians","author":"Debus AJ","year":"1965"},{"key":"bibr7-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"Dageraad, oft nieuwe opkomst der geneeskonst, in verborgen grondtregulen der Natuere. Noit in't licht gesien, en van den Autheur selve in't Nederduits beschreven","author":"van Helmont JB","year":"1659"},{"key":"bibr8-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"Oriatrike or, Physick refined. The common errors therein refuted, and the whole art reformed & rectified: being a new rise and progress of phylosophy and medicine. now. rendered into English. by J. C. sometime of M. H. Oxon","author":"van Helmont JB","year":"1662"},{"key":"bibr9-jrcpe.2016.313","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Donaldson IML. The Library copy of Helmont's Ortus Medicin\u00e6. J R Coll Physicians Edinb 2009; 39: 280\u20131. http:\/\/www.rcpe.ac.uk\/journal\/issue\/journal_39_3\/ex_libris.pdf","DOI":"10.1177\/1478271520093903014"},{"key":"bibr10-jrcpe.2016.313","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.323.7327.1467"},{"key":"bibr11-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"From Paracelsus to Van Helmont. Studies in Renaissance Medicine and Science","author":"Pagel W","year":"1986"},{"key":"bibr12-jrcpe.2016.313","volume-title":"Les oeuures de Iean Baptiste van Helmont: traittant des principes de medecine et physique pour la guerison assur\u00e9e des maladies \/ de la traduction de Iean Le Conte","author":"van Helmont JB","year":"1670"}],"container-title":["Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.4997\/jrcpe.2016.313","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.4997\/jrcpe.2016.313","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T06:28:52Z","timestamp":1777616932000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.4997\/jrcpe.2016.313"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2016,9]]},"references-count":12,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,9]]}},"alternative-id":["10.4997\/jrcpe.2016.313"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4997\/jrcpe.2016.313","relation":{},"ISSN":["1478-2715","2042-8189"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1478-2715","type":"print"},{"value":"2042-8189","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2016,9]]}}}