Thomas Wharton (1614–1673) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Culture, language and peoples
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
* ''English'', an Amish ter ...
physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
and
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal 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 scien ...
best known for his descriptions of the
submandibular duct
The submandibular duct (also Wharton's duct or historically submaxillary duct) is one of the salivary excretory ducts. It is about 5 cm long, and its wall is much thinner than that of the parotid duct. It drains saliva from each bilateral submand ...
(one of the salivary ducts) and
Wharton's jelly
Wharton's jelly (''substantia gelatinea funiculi umbilicalis'') is a gelatinous substance within the umbilical cord, largely made up of mucopolysaccharides (hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate). It acts as a mucous connective tissue containin ...
of the
umbilical cord
In Placentalia, placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or ''funiculus umbilicalis'') is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord i ...
. He is known mostly from his one published work ''Adenographia, Glandularum, Totius Corporis Descriptio'' published in 1656.
Life
Wharton was the only son of John Wharton (d. 10 June 1629) by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Roger Hodson (d. 10 March 1646) of
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercians, Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the abbey operat ...
, and was born at
Winston-on-Tees,
county Durham
County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
, on 31 August 1614. His father died when he was 15 and he suffered from a severe febrile illness when he was 19. He was admitted as a
sizar
At Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an Undergraduate education, undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in retur ...
at
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...
, on 4 July 1638, and matriculated two days later. He migrated to
Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...
in 1642, where he acted for some time as tutor to John Scrope, natural son of
Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland
Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland, 11th Baron Scrope of Bolton (1 August 1584 – 30 May 1630) was an English nobleman. He was Lord President of the King's Council in the North.
Family
He was the only child of Thomas Scrope, 10th Baron Sc ...
.
Later in 1642 he went to
Bolton
Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...
, where he remained three years studying; he also became and then, having decided upon his future profession, removed to London and studied medicine under
John Bathurst
John Bathurst (1607–1659) was an English physician. He attended Oliver Cromwell, and was twice Member of Parliament.
Life
He was the second son of Dr. John Bathurst, of Goudhurst in Kent. He was born in Sussex, his mother being Dorothy, dau ...
In 1646 he returned to Oxford, and obtained his M.D. on 7 May 1647. He was entered as a candidate of the
College of Physicians
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary school ...
on 25 January 1648, chosen fellow on 23 December 1650, incorporated at Cambridge on his doctor's degree in 1652. He held the post of censor of the Royal College of Physicians in 1658, 1661, 1666, and 1673.
He obtained the appointment of physician to
St Thomas's Hospital
St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospit ...
on 20 November 1659, and retained it till his death in 1673. Wharton was one of the very few physicians who remained at his post in London during the whole of the outbreak of the
plague of 1665
The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the most recent major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that ...
. His services were recognised by a promise of the first vacant appointment of physician in ordinary to the king. When, however, a vacancy occurred and he applied for the fulfilment of the promise, he was put off with a grant of honourable augmentation to his paternal arms, for which he had to pay
Sir William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.
Life
Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Colesh ...
.
Wharton died at his house in
Aldersgate Street
Aldersgate is a Ward of the City of London, England, named after one of the northern gates in the London Wall which once enclosed the City.
The Ward of Aldersgate is traditionally divided into Aldersgate Within and Aldersgate Without, the s ...
on 15 November 1673, and was buried on the 20th in the church of
St Michael Bassishaw
St Michael Bassishaw, or Basinshaw, was a parish church in Basinghall Street in the City of London, standing on land now occupied by the Barbican Centre complex. Recorded since the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of Lon ...
in Basinghall Street. He married Jane, daughter of William Ashbridge of London, by whom he had three sons: Thomas, father of George Wharton (both physicians; George married Anna Maria, daughter of
William Petty
Sir William Petty (26 May 1623 – 16 December 1687) was an English economist, physician, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth of England, Commonwealth in Cromwellian conquest of I ...
), Charles, and William; the last two died young. His wife predeceased him on 20 July 1669, and was buried at St Michael Bassishaw on the 23rd. A memorial in the church was moved in 1897.
Work
Wharton described the glands more accurately than had previously been done, and made researches into their nature and use, relying on dissection and experiment. He was the discoverer of the duct of the sub-mandibulary gland for the conveyance of the saliva into the mouth, which bears his name. He made a special study of the minute anatomy of the
pancreas
The pancreas (plural pancreases, or pancreata) is an Organ (anatomy), organ of the Digestion, digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdominal cavity, abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a ...
.
William Oughtred
William Oughtred (5 March 1574 – 30 June 1660), also Owtred, Uhtred, etc., was an English mathematician and Anglican clergyman.'Oughtred (William)', in P. Bayle, translated and revised by J.P. Bernard, T. Birch and J. Lockman, ''A General ...
, in the epistle to his ''Clavis Mathematicae'' (London, 1648), speaks of Wharton's proficiency; and
Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of ''The Compleat Angler'' (1653), he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been ...
, in his ''
Compleat Angler
''The Compleat Angler'' (the spelling is sometimes modernised to ''The Complete Angler'', though this spelling also occurs in first editions) is a book by Izaak Walton, first published in 1653 by John and Richard Marriot, Richard Marriot in Lon ...
'', expresses indebtedness to Wharton, and calls him a friend.
He wrote four English verses under a fanciful engraving prefixed to a translation by
Elias Ashmole
Elias Ashmole (23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer, freemason and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Char ...
, entitled ''Arcanum, or the Grand Secret of Hermetic Philosophy'', and published in his ''
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum
''Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum'' first published in 1652, is an extensively annotated compilation of English alchemical literature acquired by Elias Ashmole. The book preserved and made available many works that had previously existed only in ...
'' (London, 1652). Wharton and Bathurst had visited
Arthur Dee
Arthur Dee (13 July 1579 – September or October 1651) was a physician and alchemist. He became a physician successively to Tsar Michael I of Russia and to King Charles I of England.
Youth
Dee was the eldest son of John Dee by his third wife ...
for Ashmole (who translated his ''
Fasciculus Chemicus
''Fasciculus Chemicus'' or ''Chymical Collections. Expressing the Ingress, Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermetick Science out of the choicest and most famous authors'' is an anthology of alchemical writings compiled by Arthur Dee (1579� ...
'', but never met him). Ashmole and Wharton worked together on the catalogue of the
Musaeum Tradescantianum
The ''Musaeum Tradescantianum'' was the first museum open to the public to be established in England. Located in South Lambeth, London, it comprised a collection of curiosities assembled by John Tradescant the elder and his son in a building ...
, printed in 1650, stemming from a visit they paid
John Tradescant the younger
John Tradescant the Younger (; 4 August 1608 – 22 April 1662), son of John Tradescant the Elder, was a botanist and gardener. The standard List of botanists by author abbreviation, author abbreviation Trad. is applied to species he describe ...
in 1650.
Their friendship was troubled, but reconciliation took place before Wharton's death.
Wharton published ''Adenographia; sive glandularum totius corporis descriptio'', London, 1656 (plates); Amsterdam, 1659; Oberwesel, 1664, 1671,1675; Düsseldorf, 1730. Large portions of the work were printed in Le Clerc and Mangot's ''Bibliotheca Anatomica'', Geneva, 1699.
Hieronymus Barbatus in his ''Dissertatio Elegantissima de Sanguine'', Paris, 1667, makes use of Wharton's work.
References
Sources
*
External links
At www.whonamedit.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wharton, Thomas
1614 births
1673 deaths
Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians
17th-century English medical doctors
English anatomists