Thomas Winston (1576–1655) was an English physician.

Life

He was the son of Thomas Winston, a carpenter, of Painswick,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, and his wife Judith, daughter of Roger Lancaster of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. He graduated M.A. at

Clare Hall, Cambridge Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1966 by Clare College, Clare Hall is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students alongside postdoctoral researchers and fellows. It ...

in 1602, and continued a fellow of that college till 1617. He then studied medicine at

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, where he attended the lectures of Fabricius ab Aquapendente, and at Basle, where he became a pupil of

Caspar Bauhin Gaspard Bauhin or Caspar Bauhin ( la, Casparus Bauhinus; 17 January 1560 – 5 December 1624), was a Swiss botanist whose ''Pinax theatri botanici'' (1623) described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to t ...

. He graduated M.D. at Padua, and was incorporated M.D. at Cambridge in 1608. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians in London on 9 March 1610, a candidate or member on 10 September 1613, and was elected a fellow on 20 March 1615. He was ten times censor between 1622 and 1637. He was an active member of the Virginia Company, regularly attending its meetings in London until October 1621, and acting as one of the editors of ''A Declaration of the State of the Colonie and Affaires in Virginia'', published in 1620. He was elected Professor of Physic at Gresham College on 25 October 1615, and held office till 1642. He then went abruptly to France, but returned in 1652.

William Lenthall William Lenthall (1591–1662) was an English politician of the English Civil War, Civil War period. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons for a period of almost twenty years, both before ...

wrote to the Gresham committee on his behalf, and on 20 August 1652 he was restored to his professorship, which he held till his death. He had a large practice as a physician, and always kept an apothecary, who followed him humbly. He died on 24 October 1655.

Works

His works show anatomical reading as well as a practical acquaintance with the anatomy of man and of animals. He was well read in

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...

and in Latin literature and Meric Casaubon praised his learning. After his death his ''Anatomy Lectures'' were published in London in 1659 and 1664. He made no original discoveries, held the old erroneous opinion that there are openings in the

septum In biology, a septum (Latin for ''something that encloses''; plural septa) is a wall, dividing a cavity or structure into smaller ones. A cavity or structure divided in this way may be referred to as septate. Examples Human anatomy * Interatri ...

between the ventricles, showed no acquaintance with William Harvey's work on the

circulation of the blood The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...

, and believed that the arteries transmit vital spirit elaborated in the left ventricle as well as blood.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Winston, Thomas 1576 births 1655 deaths 16th-century English medical doctors 17th-century English medical doctors People from Painswick