Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 631

JOHN MAYOW (1640-1679) Tractatus quinque medico-physici. E theatro Sheldoniano 1674 Vol. I: [42] 335 [1] pp.; Vol. II: 152 pp., port., 6 fold. plates. 18 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 630

This historically important and rare book "is one of the best English medical classics" according to Garrison and Morton and is "one of the world's greatest masterpieces" according to John Ruhräh (Pediatrics of the past. New York, 1925. p. 344). In addition to the two treatises in Tractatus duo (No. 630), it includes his tracts on respiration in which he accurately describes the role of the intercostal muscles in breathing, a tract on respiration of the fetus in utero, and De motu musculari in which he gives what may be the first description of mitral stenosis. His work shows that he was much in advance of his time and that he was a conscientious researcher who based his results on close attention to detail in the manner of his contemporaries, Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke.

Cited references: Cushing M236; Garrison-Morton 578; Osler 3359; Russell 566(b); Waller 6392

Gift of John Martin, M.D.