Thomas Willis
Thomas Willis ( born January 27, 1621 Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire at Oxford; † November 11, 1675 in London) was an English physician, and is considered one of the founders of the anatomy of the nervous system, he drew inferences therefrom on mental illness. He co-founded the Royal Society of London.
Life
Willis studied at Oxford and became a general practitioner. As a reward for his royalism, he was appointed Professor of Natural History in 1660. In 1666 he moved to London, where he studied until recently and as a doctor ran a great practice. He died aged 54 of pneumonia.
Services
Willis discovered, among other things named after him artery ring ( circle of Willis ) to the blood supply of the brain and first described restless legs syndrome.
Was with his 1664 published work Cerebri anatome he delivered the first time a detailed description of the brain and nerves that illustrates the work of Christopher Wren. Willis has not only the concept of Neurology coined, but that also the reason for the centuries of neuroses research laid the first inter alia with George Cheyne (1641-1743), Robert Whytt (1714-1766) and William Cullen (1710 - 1790) began in England, cf. Cultural and psychiatriegechichtliche aspects. The moral treatment of William Battie (1703-1776) and William Tuke (1732-1822) was influenced by the stress field, which was created by the somatic findings. In addition, Willis introduced many technical terms in the field of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and neuropathology, such as the concept of the reflex response, the cerebral cortex function, the cerebral localization and the internal secretion. He is the first to describe the merits acquired myasthenia gravis and in monitoring the imbecility, epilepsy and schizoaffective upsets. He also introduced the still valid numbering of the cranial nerves. Other important structures Willis first described: the corpus striatum, thalamus, pons, and mammillary bodies.
In his 1666 printed in London book, A Plain and Easy Method for Preserving thosethat are well from the Infection of the Plague, and for Curing: such as are Infected he warns against excessive alcohol intake, but recommends, as before him the medieval doctrines of health, moderate drinking.
Cultural and historical aspects of psychiatry
In accordance with the terms of the founding years of the Royal Society Willis is influenced by the physical and socio- moral ideas of his time. Willis was a contemporary of John Locke (1632-1704) and Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), and prepared the public discussions about " madness" and "English Malady ," which, inter alia, by Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733), Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) and Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) was continued. Sydenham was also a member of the Royal Society. Insanity at that time was quite a political subject and quite of national public interest, since this issue manifested itself both in clubs, in magazines, tea and coffee house discussions on the road and in the medical consultation ( Consultation Psychiatry). It was common that the voice of the " common voice " or the " public spirit " of the people or the " common sense " a high priority has been given. This " common sense " and the reflective directed towards inwardness of subjectivity formation activity was also taken up by Anthony Shaftesbury (1671-1713) and by the Scottish school. Willis has incorporated these views in his psychological concept of " nerve -Spirits " ( animal spirits ). This should external mechanical movements as well as the activity of imagination play a role. The sense of community (" sensus communis " ) lies in the brain center. The nervous system is due to the " nerve -Spirits " and " Corporeal Soul " thrilled and so capable to psychological sensations. On this point of the title of the " Psycheology ".
By this neurological- psychological system, the earlier humoral chemical explanations have been displaced. In particular, the functional syndromes were thus explained by Willis as forms of insanity in which no material injury was visible. Here, only the apparent effects on their nervous Spirits were bruised. It could so any psychological, moral, social and political phenomena are viewed as " sick " or " abnormal ".
Willis took the then new and so far apart from him only by Charles Le Pois 1618 outspoken opinion that hysteria is not a disease of the uterus, but a brain disease. The aforementioned pathology Willis ' (nerve Spirits ) is mainly applied to the hysteria. With Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) and Francis Glisson (1596-1677) together is also extended to the hypochondria this system of nerve Sprits. These women are mostly affected by hysteria, except if they work hard, while men are affected by hysteria, especially when they are more likely to exercise a sedentary job. Dörner argues that the disease descriptions refer to the visible bourgeois public sphere, specifically in the commercial or other agencies or in academic or literary professions.
Works
- Cerebri anatome: cui AccessIT nervorum descriptio et usus. 1664
- Pathologiae Cerebri et nervousness Generis Specimen. 1667
- De Anima Brutorum. 1672
- Pharmaceutice rationalis. Immersive diatriba de medicamentorum operationibus in humano corpore. Volume 1, 1674/1675, scan from Google Books
- Pharmaceutice rationalis immersive diatriba de medicamentorum operationibus in humano corpore. [ S. L. ]; Hagae - Comitis. Leers, 1677 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf
- Clarissimi Viri Thomae Willis, Medicinae Doctoris, Philosophiae Naturalis Professoris Oxoniensis ... Opera Omnia: Cum Elenchis Rerum Et Indicibus necessariis, ut & multis figuris Aeneid. 1681 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf