The rise of physiology in England : the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1895 / by William Selby Church.

  • Church, William Selby, Sir.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The rise of physiology in England : the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1895 / by William Selby Church. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    67/76 page 63
    Note r, p. 31. Vide Prelectiones, folio 84. Note s, p. 31. Mayow was a pupil and Lower a coadjutor with Willis, whose fame rests on his anatomical rather than his physiological work. In physiology and physiological chemistry Willis allowed himself to indulge in most extravagant hypotheses, and his works have con- sequently fallen, into oblivion, though much that he wrote on the practice of medicine was excellent and greatly in advance of his times. Willis wrote much concerning the soul, by which he meant the vital force, and considered the soul of brutes to be corporeal and fiery, and says, “The soul lying hid in the blood or vital liquor is a certain flame or fire and quotes Gassendus with approval : “ The soul, therefore, is a certain flame, or a species of most thin fire, which as long as it lives or remains inkindled, so long the animal lives; when it no longer lives, or is extinguished, the animal dyes.” Willis separates the rational soul which is in man, from the corporeal which man shares with brutes. John Mayow was born in London in the parish of St. Dunstan’s- in-the-West, 1643, but belonged to a Cornish family, and is de- scribed at his matriculation at Wadham College, Oxford, as living at Bree. He entered at Wadham July 2nd, 1658, became a scholar of his college the succeeding year, and a Fellow of All Souls in 1660. He does not appear to have taken any medical degree at Ox- ford, but became Bachelor of Civil Law 1665, and Doctor 1670. I have been unable to find out if he had any medical degree ; he was not a Fellow of our College, but was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678, the year before he died. His death occurred at the house of an apothecary, of the sign of the Anker, in York Street, Covent Garden, and he is buried in the parish church of St. Paul. The circumstances connected with his death are not known, and singularly little seems to be known of his life. His Tractaius
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3