Francis Glisson (1597 – 14 October 1677
[Guido Giglioni]
'Glisson, Francis (1599?–1677)'
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 31 December 2008) was a British
physician,
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
, and writer on medical subjects. He did important work on the anatomy of the
liver, and he wrote an early
pediatric
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...
text on
rickets. An experiment he performed helped debunk the
balloonist theory of muscle contraction by showing that when a muscle contracted under water, the water level did not rise, and thus no air or fluid could be entering the muscle.
Glisson was born in
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
and was educated in
Rampisham,
Dorset, and at
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Glisson is a well-known medical
eponym; he was for forty years
Regius Professor of Physic at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...
. He died in London. The Glisson family can be traced to present-day
Somerset
Somerset ( , ; Archaism, archaically Somersetshire , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the so ...
.
See also
*
Fibrous capsule of Glisson
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glisson, Francis
1677 deaths
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
British anatomists
Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Regius Professors of Physic (Cambridge)
Original Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Dorset
1599 births