January 17th Richard Lower (Death)
Richard Lower (1631 – 1691) was a St. Tudy-born physician who studied at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford where he met Thomas Willis (1621 – 1675) who became renowned for his work in anatomy, psychiatry and neurology. Lower followed Willis to London where he worked with Robert Hooke and wrote a magisterial text on the workings of the heart, Tractatus de Corde (1669).


Lower traced the circulation of blood as it passes through the lungs and observed changes exposed to air and he was the first to distinguish between arterial and venous blood.  His major achievement was to demonstrate the potential of blood transfusions both from animal to animal but even from animal to human.
Lower became a successful private physician and sufficiently renowned to be the doctor entrusted with the treatment of King Charles II in the King's final illness. As a Protestant, he was dismissed from the Court by James II but,  following the Glorious Revolution, he was recalled to court and,  subsequently, treated Queen Anne.





Previous                   Next