The 400th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Willis (1621-1675): an invaluable contributor to neuroscience.

Abstract

On the 400th anniversary of his birth, Thomas Willis is remembered as ‘‘the founder of clinical neuroscience,’’ and a pioneer of modern translational research in anatomy. He published six books, one postmortem, the most famous being Cerebri anatome: cui accessit nervorum descriptio et usus (1664), as well as two further comprehensive books on the brain and nervous system: Pathologiae cerebri, et nervosi generis specimen. In quo agitur de morbis convulsivis, et de scorbuto (1667), and De anima brutorum quae homine vitalis ac sensitiva est (1672). Willis enrolled in the University of Oxford on March 3, 1637, received his Bachelor of Arts (chemistry) on June 12, 1639, and a Master of Arts on June 18, 1642. Known as a royalist, Willis participated in the Earl of Dover’s auxiliary regiment against the Parliamentarians. In 1646, his loyalty was rewarded with a Bachelor of Medicine after only 6 months of study. However, he had difficulty establishing a practice and spent the next decade in conjunction with the experimental philosophical club in Oxford, working with chemical theories. Willis was a founding member of the Royal Society of London, helping transform medicine into a science. His research fused the study of the brain, nerves, and behavior into a unified field known as neurology. In Willis’ physiological model, the nerves carried stimuli from the periphery to the center and from there to the muscles. The nerves occupied a prominent position in his view, which he described as the doctrine of nerves or neurology. In his book Cerebri anatome, a fundamental work of neuroscience influenced by the cultural and political context of Baroque Europe and mid-17th century England, he emphasized that anatomy could ‘‘unlock the secret places of Man’s mind and look into the living and breathing Chapel of the Deity.’’ Through his knowledge of alchemy, iatrochemistry, and his experiments with blood and urine, he reshaped the concept of animal spirits in physiology and neurophysiology. His scientific methods, allied with his religious convictions, led him to view the brain as a harmonious system designed by God. Willis believed that human and animal anatomy shared similarities but differed regarding higher functions. He believed that man had an immortal soul in addition to that which was shared with the animals. Following Galenic methods, he used what he learned in animal dissections in autopsies of deceased patients, describing parts of the body and determining their function. In Cerebri anatome, Willis referred to the differences between men and animals as evidence of a God-given immaterial soul, reinforcing his belief that the brain was Thomas Willis (1621-1675).