Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 722

WILLIAM COWPER (1666-1709) Myotomia reformata; or, A new administration of all the muscles of humane bodies. Printed for Sam. Smith and Ben. Walford 1694 [24] 280 pp., [10] fold. plates. 19.3 cm.

Cowper, British surgeon and anatomist, was admitted to the Company of Barber Surgeons in 1691 after serving his apprenticeship with two different London surgeons. According to Richard Mead (see No. 766 ff.), in the Advertisement to the present work, Cowper "was universally allowed to be as eminent an Anatomist as any of his Time." Cowper published this work only three years after entering practice and it became a popular and well-received book. The text, in which there are numerous references to earlier anatomical works from Hippocrates to contemporary authors, covers in brief form the gross anatomy of the human muscular system. An appendix contains a description of the penis and the manner of its erection. Cowper did not understand the role of the nervous and circulatory systems in initiating and sustaining erection and believed it to be a gross mechanical process.

See Related Record(s): 766

Cited references: Choulant-Frank, p. 253; Russell 209; Waller 2191; Wellcome II, p. 401 (1724 ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.