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Whipple Library

Department of History and Philosophy of Science
 

Keill title page

 

 

The anatomy of the human body abridg'd : or, A short and full view of all the parts of the body : together with their several uses drawn from their compositions and structures, by James Keill.
London : Printed for John Clarke, 1734.
STORE 32:5

James Keill is noted for writing the “most popular English anatomical compendium”* of the second half of the 17th and the early part of the 18th centuries. Originally from Scotland, he spent most of his life in Northamptonshire working as a local doctor looking after patients of Hans Sloane. While living the life of a provincial doctor he wrote an article on a dissection he performed on a button seller who was reported to be 130 years old and developed his ideas on the use of mathematics to explain the functioning of the human body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Valadez, F.M. & O’Malley, C.D. “James Keill of Northampton, physician, anatomist and physiologist” in Medical History, 15 (4) Oct 1971.

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