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Thomas Willis, his Life, Legacy, and the Revolutionary Advances Made in Medicine Including in the Field we now know as Neuroscience Cover

Thomas Willis, his Life, Legacy, and the Revolutionary Advances Made in Medicine Including in the Field we now know as Neuroscience

Australasian Journal of Neuroscience
Volume 35 (2025): Issue 2 (October 2025)
By:   
Open Access
|Oct 2025
Figures & tables

Figures & Tables

Figure 1.

Willis Family Tree.

Figure 2.

Electronic Copy of John Speed’s 1605 Map of Oxford (Google Images)

Figure 3.

Translation of the Crypt Stone in Westminster Abbey, Demonstrating Thomas’ Love and Devotion of his Wife Mary

Table 1.

Firsts and Momentous Discoveries of Thomas Willis

  • He was the first to describe and name optic thalamus, vagus nerve, migraines, corpora striatum, spinal accessory nerve and internal capsule.

  • Willis deduced that the medulla oblongata coordinated many of the body’s involuntary functions.

  • He demonstrated that obstruction to the blood flow to the brain did not always correlate with apoplexy.

  • Willis was the first to number the cranial nerves in the order we know them now.

  • He described myasthenia gravis as intermittent weakness that worsens with fatigueor activity.

  • Epilepsy was redefined as explosive reactions in the brain rather than originating from the muscles, this challenging the assumption of demonic possession.Thomas identified that recurrent seizures could result death.

  • Thomas theorised the cerebrum as the centre for memory, cognition, imagination, and volition, rejecting the ventricles theory.

  • Dementia was identified as being either congenital or acquired and linked to age, alcohol abuse, or long standing paly or epilepsy.

  • He recognised that hysteria was not a disease of the uterus but was cerebral inorigin.

  • Willis concluded that a traumatic head injury could result in acquired foolishness and stupidity.

  • He described individuals with inflammation of the meninges with concurrent fever (meningitis), noting that the term meningitis would not be coined until the early1800’s.

  • Headaches occurred as a result of increased blood flow in the brain.

  • Thomas characterised diabetes, noting the sweet flavour of the urine, and adding the word mellitus to the diagnosis.

  • He also wrote on a variety of other topics including fevers, urine, fermentation, scurvy and muscular motion.

  • Thomas provided a particularly accurate characterisation of epidemics, including detailed descriptions of typhus outbreaks.

[i] (Arráez & Aybar et al., 2015; Çağatay, 2004; Descartes, 2010; Eadie, 2003; William Feindel, 1962b; Finger & Finger, 2005; Martensen, 1993; Molnár, 2004; Rengachary et al., 2008; Symonds, 1955; Wijdicks, 2021;Wragge-Morley, 2018; Zimmer, 2004).

Figure 4.

Copy of Christopher Wren’s Diagram included in the 1664 book Cerebri Anatome of the Base of the Skull Demonstrating the Circle of Willis (yet unnamed)

Figure 5.

Digitally Coloured and Enhanced Image of the 1742 Engraving of Thomas Willis, after a Portrait Completed in 1666.

Appendix 1.

Timeline of Thomas Willis’ Life, and the events occurring in England at the time, the period of the English Civil War proceeds the green line, the period of the interregnum proceeds the blue line and the restoration proceeds the red line.

Timeline of Events Occurring EnglandYearTimeline of Thomas Willis
1582Thomas’ brothers John and Williamare born
Court and Parliament temporary move to Oxford due to Bubonic Plaguein London, Charles I is born (November)1600
James I (born June 1566), and unifies the Scottish and English Thrones1603
1619Thomas’ sister Jane is born
1621Thomas Willis born Wiltshire England (January)
c. 1623Thomas’ mother inherits land in North Hinksey, and the family become landowners
James I and Charles I inherits the throne (March), there is almost instantly Parliamentary unrest and tension with the monarch1625
Charles I dismisses parliament and does not recall another for eleven years1629
Charles II is born (May)1630Thomas’ future wife Mary Fell is born
1631Thomas’ mother Rachael dies
Royal Charter permitting the University of Oxford to claim the body of anyone executed within 21 miles of Oxford1636The curriculum at oxford is changed to mandate that all students must participate in at least two dissections.
1637Thomas is admitted to Christ Church College, as a servitor to Dr. Thomas Iles
1639Thomas is awarded Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree (Chemistry) Christ Church College, Oxford University (June)
Charles I flees north to Oxford and establishes his court at Christ Church College Oxford (August). His physician William Harvey is with him Outbreak of Civil War in England, with first conflict at Edgehill (October)1642Thomas is awarded Master of arts (MA) degree (Chemistry) Christ Church College, Oxford University (June)

  • The city of Oxford becomes headquarters for the king’s army

  • First siege of Oxford (May/June)

1644

  • Second siege of Oxford (May/June)

  • Oliver Cromwell formally accepts the surrender of Oxford

1645Thomas Enlists in Dover’s regiment in the service of Charles I

  • Charles I flees Oxford in disguise and heads north (April)

  • Third siege of Oxford (May)

  • End of the Civil War (June), the Royalists have been defeated, Oxford surrenders, and the King is in custody.

1646

  • Awarded Bachelor of Medicine Oxford by Royal decreeand was able to begin medical practice (December)

  • Thomas’ father and stepmother die of ‘camp fever’

Charles I is being held as a prisoner of Cromwell’s at Hampton Court1647

  • Charles I aged 48 is convicted of treason and executed (January)

  • Accession of Charles II then aged 19, declared king while in exile in Scotland

1649

  • Charles II makes an attempt to get the English crown back but the Scottish army is defeated at Dunbar (September)

  • Founding of the Oxford Circle (Philosophers Club)

1650Revival of Anne Greene (December)

  • Oliver Cromwell appointed Oxford University Chancellor (January)

  • Charles II is crowned with the Scottish regalia (January)

  • Charles II and his Scottish forces are annihilated in Woster and Charles II is on the run with a warrant of 1000 pounds on his head (September)

  • Charles II flees to France (October)

1651
Oliver Cromwell forcibly takes control of England and is appointed Lord Protector of England (December)1653Thomas publishes De Fermentation and De Febribus
1657

  • Thomas moves out of university accommodation and occupies Beam Hall (Just opposite Merton Collage)

  • Thomas marries Mary Fell (April)

Oliver Cromwell dies, naming his son Richard as his successor (September)1658Thomas and Mary welcome their first Child Thomas junior
Richard Cromwell steps aside as leader1659

  • Charles II returns to England after living in exile in France on the invitation of parliament.

  • The restoration of the monarchy (May)

  • The Royal Society established (November)

1660

  • Elected Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford (by request of Charles II)

  • Thomas begins brain dissections with his colleagues Christopher Wren and Richard Lower

  • Thomas and Mary’s second son Samuel is born

  • Oliver Cromwell’s body is exhumed from Westminster Abbyand post-humously executed (January)

  • Charles II crowned king of England (April)

1661Baby Samuel dies
1660Thomas is awarded a Doctor of Medicine
The Church of England is restored as the national church of England1662Thomas and Mary welcome their first daughter Mary, but unfortunately, she dies not long after birth.
1663

  • Thomas and his family move to London

  • Samuel II is born and dies

  • Thomas and Mary’s daughter Rachel is born

  • Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (December)

The Restoration1664

  • Publication of Cerebri Anatome

  • Thomas and Mary welcome a son Richard

1664

  • Elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians

  • Thomas is appointed physician in ordinary to the king

  • A new chapel at Pembroke Collage is consecrated, marking Christopher Wren’s first completed work of Architecture and career change.

  • Charles II and the royal court move to Oxford in September, not leaving until January to avoid the plague in London

1665Thomas and Mary’s daughter Anne is born
Great Fire of London1666Thomas and Mary welcome baby Jane
1667

  • Mary and Thomas’ daughter Rachael is born

  • Both Katherine and Richard die

1670Thomas’ wife Mary dies of tuberculosis (October)
1672

  • Willis publishes the earliest English work on psychiatry

  • Thomas marries his second wife Elizabeth Calley (September)

1675

  • Thomas and Mary’s two daughters Anne and Rachael die

  • Thomas dies at his home in London aged 54 (November)

Charles II died (February), James II ascends to the throne1685
Glorious Revolution1688
1699Thomas junior dies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ajon-2025-0014 | Journal eISSN: 2208-6781 | Journal ISSN: 1032-335X
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Language: English
Page range: 52 - 91
Published on: Oct 10, 2025
Published by: Australasian Neuroscience Nurses Association
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year
Keywords:
Thomas Willis,
Circle of Willis,
English Civil War,
Anatomy
Related subjects:
Medicine,
Basic medical science,
Basic medical science, other

© 2025 Linda Nichols, published by Australasian Neuroscience Nurses Association
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 35 (2025): Issue 2 (October 2025)
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