Thomas Willis (° January 27th 1621 with Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire - † November 11th 1675 with London) is a Médecin English which played a big role in the history of the science of the Anatomie and was a cofounder of the Royal Society (1662). Its medical career proceeded with Westminster, London, and of 1660 with its death with Oxford where it was titular Pulpit of natural Philosophie. It was one of the pioneers of the neuroanatomical research.

Its summarized career

He is the son of Thomas Willis and Rachel Howell. He obtains his Master off Arts in Christ Church with the Université of Oxford in 1642, his Bachelor off Medicine in 1646 and his Medical Doctorate in 1660. It Marie with Maryt Fell the April 7th 1657.

Its work

He is the creator of the " term; Neurology ". Author of many discoveries in Neuroanatomie and neuropathology (20 autopsies analyzed in its books). He described the misdeeds of the Paludisme in England. He described also the first the neuritis diabetic and probably the Myasthénie under name of “ paralysia spuria not habitualis ” (1672). He would have made the first description of the Syndrome of the legs without rest (Willis T. The London practice off physick. London the U.K.: Basset hound & Cooke 1685, cité by Winkelmann J Acta Neurol Scand 2002; 105:349 - 50).

It is with him that one owes the discovery of the " Polygon of Willis " ( circulus arteriosus ), part of the vascular system of the Brain. The description of the Brain and the Nerf S which it gives in its treaty Cerebri anatomi of 1664 is so meticulous and elaborate and so rich in new information which it represents a contrast seizing with the waves and thin contributions of its predecessors. Its work was not besides the fruit of its only individual research: it was helped by Sir Christopher Wren and Thomas Millington, as by its pupil Richard Lower and recognized his debt towards them. Wren was the author of the splendid illustrations of the book. Willis was also the first philosopher of nature to use the term reflex action to describe the elementary activities of the nervous system.

It summer the first to number the cranial nerves in the order in which the anatomists enumerate them habituellement.Thalamus; the Pons, to which He gave the name off year protuberance ; and the mammillary bodies, behind the Infundibulum. In the Cerebellum He remarked butt the arborescent arrangement off the white and Grey matter, and gave has good account off the carotid arteries and the communications which they make with the branches off the Basilar artery. -->

Plexus choroids the seat of the absorption of the Liquide céphalorachidien. The surprisingly perspicacious incursions of Willis into the anatomy and the physiology of the brain had an enormous influence. Its mark was indelible and represents a dividing line in the development of the neurosciences. -->

physician Galen, that the brain was the organ responsible for the Excretion off Animal spirits (which was thought to originate from the Cribiform punt, has bone in the bases off the Skull, overlying the nasal cavity). Willis proposed that the responsible Choroid plexus was for the absorption off Cerebrospinal fluid. -->

Publications

• Cerebri anatomi (1664) in which it reveals for the first time the detailed description of the brain and the Nerf S. Thalamus, Pons, Corpus mamillare. -->
• Pathologiae Cerebri and Nervosi Generis Specimen (1667)
• Of Animated Brutorum (1672). In this work entitled “ Speech on the heart of rough the ”, it supports the thesis according to which the Striatum would receive all sensitive information, while the callous Corps would be associated with imagination and the cerebral Cortex with the memory.

External bond

• Thomas Willis

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