An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

LOWER, Richard

6 entries
  • 2012

The method observed in transfusing the blood out of one live animal into another.

Phil. Trans., 1, 353-58, 16651666.

In February 1665 Lower successfully transfused dogs with blood.



Subjects: THERAPEUTICS › Blood Transfusion
  • 2014

An account of the experiment of transfusion, practised upon a man in London.

Phil. Trans., 2, 557-64, 1667.

First transfusion of blood performed on a human in England, Nov. 23, 1667.



Subjects: THERAPEUTICS › Blood Transfusion
  • 761

Tractatus de corde.

London: J. Allestry, 1669.

Lower was the first to demonstrate the scroll-like structure of the cardiac muscle. He was one of the first to transfuse blood. Chapter III of the above work records how Lower injected dark venous blood into the insufflated lungs; he concluded that its subsequent bright red color was due to its absorption of some of the air passing though the lungs. The British Museum copy of this book bears the signature of Walter Charleton, followed by the date “1668”; it is possible, therefore, that the book actually appeared in that year and not in 1669. Facsimile, with translation, London, 1932.



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY › Anatomy of the Heart & Circulatory System, CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY › Cardiovascular System
  • 3246

Dissertatio de origine catarrhi in qua ostenditur illum non provenire a cerebro. IN: Tractatus de corde, pp. 221-39.

London: typ. J. Redmayne, 1670.

With Schneider, Lower overthrew the idea that nasal mucus originated in the brain. This discovery localized nasal catarrh in the air passages and put an end to the use of many recipes for “purging the brain”. The Dissertatio was reprinted separately in 1672 and this was reprinted in facsimile with translation, biographical notes, and a bibliographical study by Richard Hunter and Ida Macalpine, 1963.



Subjects: OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY (Ear, Nose, Throat) › Rhinology
  • 11684

Myographia nova, or a graphical description of all the muscles in the human body; with one and forty copper-plates.

London, 1684.

Browne's treatise on the muscles consisted of six lectures, illustrated by copperplates. It was, however, a plagiarism, as was pointed out by James Yonge: it put together text from the Muskotomia by William Molins with illustrations from the Tabula anatomicae of Giulio Casseri. Nevertheless, Browne's book was popular, and underwent ten editions. 

The fifth edition of Browne's book, published in 1697, included on pp. 99-105 the first posthumous publication of Richard Lower's An appendix of the heart and its use; With the circulation of the blood, and the parts of which the sanguinary mass is made, etc.

Digital facsimile of a c. 1970 facsimile edition of the 5th edition (1697) from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 17th Century, CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY
  • 11516

A bibliography of two Oxford physiologists: Richard Lower 1631-1691, John Mayow 1643-1679. By John F. Fulton.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935.


Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographies of Individual Authors, PHYSIOLOGY › History of Physiology