A PATRONAL FESTIVAL FOR (1621-1675)

WITH REMARKS BY SIR WILLIAM OSLER, BART., F.R.S.

By HENRY VIETS, M.D. NEWTON, MASS.

YEARLY festival in honour of it to St. Martin. It was so dedicated be­ a medical worthy is certainly cause Thomas Willis had lived in St. Mar­ an occasion of note, especially if tin’s Lane, London, had died on St. Mar­ it has been held annually for tin’s Day and had acquired his wealth and one hundred and eighty three years, and is fame as a seventeenth century practitioner stillA observed in England, in spite of the in the Royal Parish of St. Martin’s-in-the- War. Last fall, news came to , Eng­ Fields. The fortune fell to his grandson. land, from the little village of Fenny Strat­ During the life of Browne Willis, a festival ford, Buckinghamshire, that the exercises in was held annually in honor of his grand­ father. When he died he left the following note: “. . . and I do make it my request . . . that they will with all due solemnity ever keep up and see to the annual celebration of S. Mar­ tin’s Festival ... in the Church of Fenny Stratford, in the manner as I have solemnized it annually . . . for 26 years, in all which time I have been con­ stantly present and heard a sermon.” » He also left for an endow­ honor of Thomas Willis would be held as ment fund two old houses near the church. usual on November fourteenth and that The cottages were pulled down a few years Sir William Osler would deliver the “ora­ ago, being no longer fit for occupancy, and tion” of the day. I was fortunately able to the money was invested in a war Ioan. attend this exercise and I am sure that a The festival itself, as celebrated last year, short account of the proceeding would be has some interesting features, not the least of interest to some of the readers of the of which are the “Fenny Poppers.” The Annals of Medical History. poppers consist of six small iron mugs which The festival had its beginnings in 1734, are filled with powder, placed in a field and three years after Browne Willis had built a fired off, like a cannon, by a fuse. The orig­ little parish church in his home village, in inal poppers of Browne Willis’s time have memory of his grandfather, and dedicated been broken, but some thirty years ago six new ones were made, modeled after the old The Bishop of Buckingham preached a ones and these are fired off yearly by the short sermon. Some sixty good church mem­ church wardens in strict accordance with bers were there with twenty medical men Browne Willis’s wishes. Another feature is from Fenny Stratford and the surrounding the church service which this year was country. It was an impressive service. The held in the little brick church late in the bishop had an appropriate text, “The old afternoon of November 14, 1916. is good,” and one felt that under the The church stands on high ground at guidance of the Church, such an annual the cross roads of the town, one of which is festival spirit would never relinquish. Watling Street, the old After the service, we Roman road. The north wandered across the side is the oldest part, street to a comfortable built in 1726. Just inside old English tavern and the door, the Fenny Pop­ about thirty sat down to pers are kept. Inside the a jolly dinner. Later, in chapel, most of the inter­ the town hall, coffee was est falls on the north served by the ladies of aisle. The ceiling is ex­ the parish. There was an ceptionally fine, being exhibition of a number decorated in colors with of old engravings of the forty armorial shields, church, some old books with a “cave” around it and other objects of in­ of twenty-six more, the terest. crests of all the donors When Sir William Osler of ten pounds or more to was called upon to speak the original building the hall was crowded with fund. These are beauti­ the villagers from miles fully executed and have around. His presence in recently been retouched Fenny Stratford was a under the skillful direc­ red letter day for this tion of Dr. William Brad­ little country town. Sir brook, a local antiquarian William Osler was at his with the best interests of best in his talk on “Willis medical history at heart. the Anatomist,” not a bit The ceiling to-day is one of which was lost on of the best preserved armorial ceilings in these simple country folks and honest prac­ England. The tomb of Browne Willis stands titioners. The spirit of medical history is at the further end of the north aisle. In dear to the heart of many English physi­ a small room beside the altar is hung an cians and most of them pride themselves engraving of Doctor Thomas Willis, dated on being antiquarians. As Sir William Os­ 1742, under which Browne Willis has writ­ ler’s talk was not written, I can only give it ten— as it appeared in the local paper.

In Honour to thy memory, blessed shade, REMARKS OF SIR WILLIAM OSLER Was the foundation of this Chapell laid. Purchased by thee, thy son and I, their heir “As Fenny Stratfordians, you do well to Owe these three mannours to thy art and care. For this, may all thy race, thanks ever pay, cherish the memory of the distinguished And yearly celebrate St. Martin’s Day. family to which the parish is so much be­ holden. It is not always easy to find en­ these three men, all great friends, were thusiasm for an annual festival, but St. in the habit of attending the service of Martin of Tours is a jovial host whose the twice daily. Wil­ name is associated with all sorts of good lis married for his first wife a sister of living and better company. That the an­ , the Dean of Christ Church. nual dinner preceded and did not follow Browne Willis’s devotion to the Church the oration suggests a wise provision on was natural—his grandfather had it be­ the part of the Saint to whom a personal fore him. To Willis’s special circle in Ox­ reference stirs my blood when I think of ford belonged a most interesting group some far-away ancestor whose hostelrie in the history of science in England. was so good and whose hospitality, I hope, The awakening of science in England was so free that his guests, in gratitude, had begun in the early part of the 17th called him by the name of his house; the century, and perhaps the first scientific name from which my own name is obvi­ work of first rank to be published in ously derived. It is fitting that the Regius Great Britain, was Gilbert’s De Magneto Professor of Medicine at Oxford should (1600). Harvey’s memorable work on the come here to honour a family to which ‘Circulation of the Blood’ appeared in Thomas Willis, the anatomist, grand­ 1628. Harvey was himself at Oxford dur­ father of their founder, belonged. This ing the period in which Willis was an under­ is the first time, I believe, in the many graduate. Whether they ever met or not years you have held the festival, that my is not known, but whilst there he met chair, the University and the College to a group of men whose lives and works which Willis belonged, have been honoured as the founders of the Royal Society in this way. Another reason for my pres­ have had the greatest influence of any ence is that I happened to be curator o'f single group of men on the development the Bodleian Library to which Browne of science in this country. Wallis himself Willis was a very generous donor. Then, told the story of the Society’s meetings, I have the great pleasure to be the friend first in London and then in Oxford; of Dr. Bradbrook, your townsman, who Most of the scientific subjects they dis­ has done so much to keep alive the memory cussed had been set on foot really with­ of Browne Willis. This evening I wish to in the previous thirty years, chiefly by speak of Willis, senior, the physician, the remarkable observations of Galileo. whom you all know in the profession, These men, who had an important influ­ and of his circle at Oxford. Thomas Wil­ ence on the subsequent development of lis took his M.B. in 1646, and began his science in this country, deserve to be practice in a house, still existing, known held in remembrance. Seth Ward, who as Beam Hall. He had a special interest was subsequently Bishop of Exeter and in the Church of England, and during of Salisbury, was the centre around the Cromwellian occupation of the city, whom the majority of these scientific the services of the Church were held men revolved. He was ‘a profound states­ twice a day in his house. One of the most man, but a very indifferent clergyman.’ famous pictures hanging in the hall in Wallis, who was also a Cambridge mans Christ Church shows John Fell, John was, more than any single man, the living Dolben and Richard Allestree with a spirit in the formation of the Royal copy of the Liturgy open before them. Society. He was a great mathematician, That picture may have been taken in and, in a most astonishing mathematical Willis’s house opposite Merton, where dream, extracted the figure root from eight groups of figures—and it was cor­ and became so much interested in the rect. He became Professor of Geometry studies that were in progress with Willis, at Oxford, and his reputation as a math­ Boyle and others that at first he studied ematician extended throughout Europe. medicine; and it is a remarkable fact

Another man who had quite a great in­ that the distinguished architect was the fluence was Wilkins, Warden of Wad­ first in England, probably in Europe, to ham, a very ingenious man with a good invent a method for the transfusion of mechanical head, who was afterwards blood from one human being to another, Bishop of Chester. In Wadham College or from one animal to another. He is is still shown the early meeting room also remembered as the first man who of the Royal Society in Oxford. Perhaps made drawings from the microscope. He the best remembered genius of the group also did many of the drawings for Willis’s is Christopher Wren, who was an un­ works. Another remarkable member of dergraduate at Wadham College in 1649, the group was the Hon. Robert Boyle, son of the Earl of Cork. He was a great downe family. Other remarkable men of exponent of the experimental method, the circle were Sydenham and John and every elementary student of physics Locke, the author of the ‘Essay on the still knows him through Boyle’s law. It Human Understanding,’ which even an is astonishing when one thinks how ordinary woman can read. There is no much Boyle did, how little was the im­ one in the room who would not be im­ pression he made. It was probably due proved by a careful study of this book to the fact that he was rather a rough ex­ over a period of several years. The last perimenter; he had a better mind than man of the circle is Lower, who did a hands. Coordination of head and hand good deal of work for Willis, whose name are necessary for a great experimenter. is remembered by the smallest single But he did a great work in stimulating fragment in the human body. It is research and a good deal of the reputa­ astonishing on how small a cork a man tion of English science on the continent will float down the ages. He did, how­ was due to him. Another extraordinary ever, a great deal of good work, especially character in the group was that genius, in the dissection of the brain. These were Sir William Petty, who made the Down Willis’s friends during the years he was a Survey in Ireland, and was the founder practitioner in Oxford. of the science of political economy. He Willis did two things; he made him­ went to sea at eight or nine years of age, self a good scientific man as far as the and while being nursed in France for a science of that day went, and he made broken leg he began a career of money­ himself a first class practitioner, and making. He went to Paris with no other those two sides of the man are pre­ capital than his native wit, became a doc­ sented in his works. It is not possible tor, and came to Oxford at the time one of in a mixed audience to go into the char­ my predecessors had the fortunate habit of acter of his work, but there are one or fainting whenever he saw a dead body, so two things that will interest you. The first it was impossible for him to do dissection. of his collected works was a ‘Study of Fer­ Petty was made Professor of Anatomy, and mentation.’ From time immemorial, it had joined this circle of Boyle’s, and was a most been one of the great mysteries how certain invaluable member of it. He became well- bodies undergo the extraordinary change known throughout the country as theresus- known as fermentation, and why at the ciattor of Ann Green, a young woman who end of the fermentation there was such a was ‘hanged by the neck until she was good change in the liquid. Willis studied dead,’ and then handed over as a perquis­ this mystery and made it still greater in ite to the Professor of Anatomy, who the pages he devoted to it. But he grasped claimed the bodies of all criminals for one very important thing, the analogy dissection. In spite of the fact that the between a fever and fermentation. He relatives had tugged at the rope, before made the very interesting observation the body was cut down and had jumped that there is no difference between the on her to make sure she was dead, Petty vintner and the physician; when the vat resuscitated her, and she lived for many becomes too full in fermentation the vint­ years and became a very respectable ner draws off some of the liquid, and he member of the community. It was a great said: ‘What is that but what we do with loss to Oxford when Petty went to Ire­ blood fermenting in a fever?’ That was a land; he is of interest to the present good reason for phlebotomy. It was not generation as the founder of the Lans­ until 1857 that the problem of fermenta­ tion was solved by Louis Pasteur, who showed that if one took the tiniest little showed that fermentation is not a pure drop on the point of a needle from a fer­ chemical process, but due to changes ow­ menting fluid and put it into a sugary ing to the growth of living bodies in the solution it would create fermentation; fluid. That is the greatest single dis­ and, in just the same way, the tiniest drop covery as far as the welfare of humanity of blood from an animal suffering from

is concerned, and it has had the farthest anthrax would cause identical changes to reaching influence of any single discovery occur in the blood of another animal; of the century. It revived the parallel there would be a multiplication of the which had been drawn 300 years before germs, a change in the fluid, and at the between fermentation and fever. Fracas- end of the fever produced by the anthrax torius had called attention to it in the 16th one could not induce the fever again by century, and Boyle had said that the man inoculation. That was the foundation of who would solve the problem of fermen­ our modern treatment of infectious disease tation would solve the problem of infec­ and the antiseptic treatment of wounds. tious fevers. Pasteur solved both. He Besides this subject of fermentation, Willis also dealt with intermittent fevers think of the constitutions our ancestors and enteric or typhoid fever. He was had, and of how they withstood the as­ one of the first to describe an epidemic saults of the apothecary. in 1643 *n army of Essex besieging It is really a wonderful age to live in, Reading. He reported also on an epidemic more for what the human body misses in 1661. It is interesting to see what he than for what we have. When I look prescribed for typhoid. One would not through the list of drugs that were given care to have typhoid fever and to be and the prescriptions that were then fol­ treated by Willis. The patient would be lowed, I feel that the public has to lucky if he were not bled, dosed with all thank the profession for having got rid the available purges in the Pharmacopoeia, of so many nauseous and horrid drugs. sweated, given two or three active vomits We still have a fair number, not that and blistered on the calves of the legs, the the profession likes to give, but the pub­ abdomen, and probably the back. These lic will have them. In some of Willis’ were five articles of the treatment of prescriptions, there were ten to fifteen dif­ fever that the public at present is ferent ingredients—each worse than the spared. Willis was one of the first to de­ other—besides vomits, purges, sweatings, scribe typhoid fever in epidemic form, and diuretics, cordials and opiates. Syden­ one of the first to give an accurate descrip­ ham and Willis probably owed much of tion of child-bed fever. He was the first their reputation to their knowledge of to give an accurate account of the dis­ how to use opium. Willis wrote, amongst ease known as diabetes, and he recog­ other things, two discourses on the soul nised the saccharine or sugar variety of brutes, which would be a very good from the ordinary form. He is better exercise for any medical student or doc­ remembered to-day by his big work on tor. Altogether, Willis is an interesting the brain. He did a really fine piece of character to contemplate. I have known study on the human brain, and it was him for a good while and I have known the best book of its date on the nervous him far better since I had your kind system, not only in the description of invitation and have had to read Willis’s the anatomy of the brain, but of the large book through, from which I got a anatomy of the nerves, in which he was great deal of information I did not want, greatly helped by Lower’s sections and and have refrained from giving to you. I Wren’s drawings. His classification of the have only picked out a few parts here and nerves of the brain remained in England there, but it has been a pleasant task, and I until my own generation. Willis is remem­ feel a good deal better for it. Willis was a bered particularly by the description of great and a good man, and the 15th Psalm certain blood vessels at the base of the the Chairman has read at the service is most brain known as the circle of Willis. A appropriate. It just suited him. There are great part of Willis’s book is taken up many good descriptions of the upright, with a ‘Pharmaceutica rationale.’ It is as righteous man, but none better than that dead as Willis. It gives me a shudder to in the 15th Psalm, which fits Willis to a‘t.’ ”