Thomas Willis

Willis, Thomas 

Born Jan. 27, 1621, in Oxford; died Nov. 11, 1675, in London. English anatomist and physician.

Willis studied in Oxford and became a professor at Oxford University in 1660. In 1667 he moved to London, where he became famous for combining the practical work of a physician with research on the anatomy of the brain and its blood vessels. Willis’ name is given to arteries at the base of the brain, to the llth pair of cranial nerves—the accessory nerve—which he was the first to describe, and to part of the stomach bordering on the pylorus.

WORKS

Cerebri anatome, cui accessit Nervorum descriptio et usus. Amsterdam, 1683.

REFERENCE

Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte, 2nd ed., vol. 5. Edited by A. Hirsch. Berlin, 1934.