Bernard Connor or O'Connor M.D. (–1698) was an Irish physician and historian.

Life

Connor was born in

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

in , and was instructed by private tutors. With the intention of adopting the medical profession he went to France about 1686, and studied at the universities of Montpelier and Paris, but took the degree of M.D. at

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

on 18 September 1691. He was a distinguished physician, anatomist and chemist. When the two sons of

Jan Wielopolski Count Jan Wielopolski (c. 1630-1688) was a Polish nobleman, aristocrat, politician and diplomat. Between May 1678 and January 1680, he was also a Polish chancellor. Biography Son of castellan and voivode Jan Wielopolski and Zofia Kochanowska. He ...

of Poland were on the point of returning to their own country, it was arranged that they should be accompanied by Connor. He took them to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

, and through the

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, and Austria, to Vienna. After some stay at the court of

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; ; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, List of Croatian monarchs, Croatia, and List of Bohemian monarchs, Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Rom ...

he passed through

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

and

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. He was appointed physician at the court of

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( (); (); () 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobieski was educated at the Jagiellonian University and toured Eur ...

; his reputation was increased by his correct diagnosis that Katarzyna Radziwiłłowa, the king's sister, was suffering not from ague as other physicians maintained, but from an abscess in the liver. In 1694 Connor was appointed to attend the king of Poland's only daughter, the Princess

Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska Theresa Kunegunda (, , ) (4 March 1676 – 27 March 1730) was a Polish people, Polish princess, Electress of Bavaria and of the Electorate of the Palatinate. By birth, she was a member of the House of Sobieski and by marriage, she is also a membe ...

, who was to travel from Warsaw to Brussels to marry

Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria Maximilian II (11 July 1662 – 26 February 1726), also known as Max Emanuel or Maximilian Emanuel, was a Wittelsbach ruler of Electorate of Bavaria, Bavaria and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. He was also the last governor of the Spani ...

. They set out on 11 November 1694, and arrived at Brussels on 12 January 1695. Connor went on in February to London and took up residence in Bow Street, Covent Garden. He visited Oxford, where he lectured on the discoveries of

Marcello Malpighi Marcello Malpighi (10 March 1628 – 30 November 1694) was an Italians, Italian biologist and physician, who is referred to as the "founder of microscopical anatomy, histology and father of physiology and embryology". Malpighi's name is borne by ...

Lorenzo Bellini Lorenzo Bellini (3 September 1643 in Florence – 8 January 1704 in Florence), Italian physician and anatomist. Life At the age of twenty, when he had already begun his researches on the structure of the kidneys and had described the papillary du ...

Francesco Redi Francesco Redi (18 February 1626 – 1 March 1697) was an Italians, Italian physician, naturalist, biologist, and poet. He is referred to as the "founder of experimental biology", and as the "father of modern parasitology". He was the first perso ...

, and others he had known. He returned in the summer of 1695 to London, where in the ensuing winter he gave another course of lectures. On 27 Nov. 1695 he was elected a

fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

; on 6 April 1696 he was admitted a licentiate of the

College of Physicians of London The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of p ...

, and that year lectured at Cambridge. Connor succumbed to a fever, of which he died in October 1698. He was buried at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields on the 30th, when his

funeral sermon A Christian funeral sermon is a formal religious oration or address given at a funeral ceremony, or sometimes a short time after, which may combine elements of eulogy with biographical comments and expository preaching. To qualify as a sermon, it sh ...

was preached by

William Hayley William Hayley (9 November 174512 November 1820) was an English writer, best known as the biographer of his friend William Cowper. Biography Born at Chichester, he was sent to Eton in 1757, and to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1762; his connec ...

, D.D. Hayley, who regarded Connor as a member of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, attended him in his last illness and gave him the sacrament; but a Catholic priest also visited the dying man, and gave him absolution.

Works

In 1695 Connor published ''Dissertationes Medico-Physicæ. De Antris Lethiferis. De Montis Vesuvii Incendio. De Stupendo Ossium Coalitu. De Immani Hypogastrii Sarcomate'' Oxford, 1695. These treatises were printed separately with distinct title-pages. The election of a successor to King

John Sobieski John III Sobieski ( (); (); () 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobieski was educated at the Jagiellonian University and toured Eur ...

prompted Connor's ''The History of Poland, in several letters to persons of quality, giving an account of the ancient and present state of that kingdom'', 2 vols. London, 1698. He was assisted by John Savage, who wrote almost the whole of the second volume. From it the account of Poland in John Harris, ''Collection of Travels'', vol. ii. (1748), was mostly derived. In 1697 Connor published ''Evangelium Medici; seu medicina mystica de suspensis naturæ legibus, sive de miraculis; reliquisque en tois bibliois memoratis, quæ medicæ indagini subjici possunt'', London, (two editions in the same year), reprinted at Amsterdam 1699. In this work he tried to show that the miraculous cures performed by Jesus Christ and his apostles may be accounted for on natural principles. Its appearance made a sensation, and Connor's religious orthodoxy became suspect. Other works were: * ''Lettre écrite à Monsieur le Chevalier Guillaume de Waldegrave, premier medecin de sa Majesté Britannique. Contenant une Dissertation Physique sur la continuité de plusieurs os, à l'occasion d'une fabrique surprenante d'un tronc de Squelette humain, ou les vertebres, les côtes, l'os Sacrum, & les os des Iles, qui naturellement sont distincts & separez, ne font qu'un seul os continu & inseparable'', Paris, 1691. Describes

ankylosing spondylitis Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a type of arthritis from the disease spectrum of axial spondyloarthritis. It is characterized by long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine, typically where the spine joins the pelvis. With AS, eye and bow ...

in a skeleton. * ''Zωοθανάσιον θαυμαστόν, seu Mirabilis Viventium Interitus in Charonea Neapolitana Crypta. Dissertatio Physica Romæ in Academia ill. D. Ciampini proposita'', Cologne, 1694.

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Connor, Bernard 1660s births 1698 deaths 17th-century Irish medical doctors 17th-century Irish historians Fellows of the Royal Society Writers from County Kerry Medical doctors from County Kerry