Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Heinemann (2004), Hardcover
Description
Soul Made Flesh is the remarkable untold story of a dramatic turning point in history, the exciting discovery of how the human brain works. In an unprecedented examination of how the secrets of the brain were revealed in seventeenth-century England, award-winning author Carl Zimmer tells an extraordinary tale that unfurls against a deadly backdrop of civil war, plague, and the Great Fire of London. At the beginning of that turbulent century, no one knew how the brain worked or even what it looked like intact. By the century's close, the science of the brain had taken root, helping to overturn many of the most common misconceptions and dominant philosophies about man, God, and the universe. Presiding over the rise of this new scientific paradigm was the founder of modern neurology, Thomas Willis, a fascinating, sympathetic, even heroic figure who stands at the center of an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers known as the Oxford circle. Chronicled here in vivid detail are their groundbreaking revelations and often gory experiments that first enshrined the brain as the chemical engine of reason, emotion, and madness, indeed as the very seat of the human soul. Called 'as fine a science essayist as we have' by The New York Times, Zimmer tells the story of this scientific revolution through the lives of a colorful array of alchemists, mystics, utopians, spies, revolutionaries, and kings. He recreates the religious, ethical, and scientific struggles involved in the pioneering autopsies of the brain carried out by Thomas Willis; the discovery of the circulation of blood by William Harvey and his flight from London with his besieged king, Charles I; René Descartes's persecution by Catholics and Protestants alike for his views of the brain and soul; and the experiments and personal dramas of gifted men who forever changed the way science is practiced as they simultaneously upended our view of our human selves and our place in the world. In this distant mirror to our own time of continuing scientific revolution and worldwide social upheaval, Zimmer brings to life the painstaking, innovative discoveries of Willis and his contemporaries, the taproots of the amazing work of today's neuroscientists, who continue to explore the brain, revealing the hidden workings of emotions, memories, and consciousness. Graced with beautiful illustrations by Christopher Wren, Soul Made Flesh conveys a contagious appreciation for the wonder of the brain, its structure, its many marvelous functions, and the implications for human identity, mind, and morality. It is the definitive history of the dawn of a world-changing science and attitude, the age of the brain and modern consciousness.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member scvlad
Ostensibly about Thomas Willis, a 17th century physician and anatomist, and his discovery of the the brain as the seat of intelligence and the 'command center' of the rest of the body, the book actually documents what is essentially the transition from 'natural philosophy' to 'science'. It centers
The ferment of ideas in this period is extraordinary and Zimmer does an excellent job in summarizing them and tying them together, showing how discoveries in one 'area', like chemistry, affected other in other 'areas', like medicine (though these men certainly had not conceived of our modern 'areas' of science like chemistry and physics), and how these discoveries both were influenced by, and influenced in turn, the way we view the world around us.
Zimmer's centerpiece is Willis' investigations into the brain and nerves, and he argues that his discoveries essentially presaged much of modern neurology, limited mostly by Willis' lack of knowledge of electricity. He further argues that these discoveries had a profound effect on how we viewed sickness and health, and how we understand 'the soul'.
I want to spend a second taking issue with some comments by another reviewer: First, because Willis is not generally as well known as some of the other scientists described here does not mean his importance has been overstated. Zimmer's arguments that his discoveries changed how we look at the body and world are compelling, even if most of the world has forgotten where the discoveries originated. Second, I don't think that people feel relief just because they find out that mental illness is treatable; whether treatable or not, patients are often relieved to find out that their illness has a rational basis, that we can put a label on it, and describe why it is happening. It relieves them to know that they are not just 'crazy'. Third, to paraphrase Mozart in 'Amadeus', the book is precisely as long as it needs to be to get Zimmer's points across. It does not ramble, it is not repetitious, and is just plain interesting from beginning to end.
For all students of science and history, this is a wonderful book and is well worth your time.
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on Oxford in the mid 17th century and the extraordinary men who working there, men who were willing to discard centuries of accepted wisdom about the natural world, including medicine, in favor of doing actual experiments to discover how things, including the human body, actually worked. Unlike Willis, many of these men did not limit themselves to medicine, and the list of them reads like a who's who of 17th C science, philosophy, and of all things, architecture! The cast, besides Willis, includes: Descartes, Hobbes, Boyle, Vesalius, Paracelsus, Harvey, Hooke, Locke, Wallis, Ward, Wilkins, Wren, Sydenham, and many others.The ferment of ideas in this period is extraordinary and Zimmer does an excellent job in summarizing them and tying them together, showing how discoveries in one 'area', like chemistry, affected other in other 'areas', like medicine (though these men certainly had not conceived of our modern 'areas' of science like chemistry and physics), and how these discoveries both were influenced by, and influenced in turn, the way we view the world around us.
Zimmer's centerpiece is Willis' investigations into the brain and nerves, and he argues that his discoveries essentially presaged much of modern neurology, limited mostly by Willis' lack of knowledge of electricity. He further argues that these discoveries had a profound effect on how we viewed sickness and health, and how we understand 'the soul'.
I want to spend a second taking issue with some comments by another reviewer: First, because Willis is not generally as well known as some of the other scientists described here does not mean his importance has been overstated. Zimmer's arguments that his discoveries changed how we look at the body and world are compelling, even if most of the world has forgotten where the discoveries originated. Second, I don't think that people feel relief just because they find out that mental illness is treatable; whether treatable or not, patients are often relieved to find out that their illness has a rational basis, that we can put a label on it, and describe why it is happening. It relieves them to know that they are not just 'crazy'. Third, to paraphrase Mozart in 'Amadeus', the book is precisely as long as it needs to be to get Zimmer's points across. It does not ramble, it is not repetitious, and is just plain interesting from beginning to end.
For all students of science and history, this is a wonderful book and is well worth your time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cmc
Another excellent book about England’s “miracle century”, this one focusing on the work of Thomas Willis, a vital part of the Oxford circle who pioneered much of our knowledge of the brain. Turning away from the traditional acceptance of Aristotle’s and Galen’s views of how the human body
Willis is best known today as the source for the “Circle of Willis”, the circle of blood vessels allowing continuous arterial blood flow to the brain. But he, along with Thomas Lower, Christopher Wren, and Robert Hooke made the first real studies of the brain under conditions that allowed them to see the brain’s structure without the damage done by earlier surgical methods (and, of course, the rapid decomposition of the brain under comparatively primitive conditions). In the process, the concept of the soul (or several souls) gradually became localized from the body as a whole, or from assorted organs in the body, to the brain itself.
The seventeenth century was, indeed, a miracle century. The turmoil of the Glorious Revolution, the Restoration, and James’s flight and replacement by William and Mary of Orange allowed a loosening of church oversight that provided the opportunity to question everything. Science came to be in this age, and the discoveries that were made by these men with the tools they had available and devised for themselves are still relevant today.
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was assembled and functioned, Willis and the others in the Oxford circle (which later became the core of the Royal Society) dissected humans, dogs, and other animals to find out how things really worked.Willis is best known today as the source for the “Circle of Willis”, the circle of blood vessels allowing continuous arterial blood flow to the brain. But he, along with Thomas Lower, Christopher Wren, and Robert Hooke made the first real studies of the brain under conditions that allowed them to see the brain’s structure without the damage done by earlier surgical methods (and, of course, the rapid decomposition of the brain under comparatively primitive conditions). In the process, the concept of the soul (or several souls) gradually became localized from the body as a whole, or from assorted organs in the body, to the brain itself.
The seventeenth century was, indeed, a miracle century. The turmoil of the Glorious Revolution, the Restoration, and James’s flight and replacement by William and Mary of Orange allowed a loosening of church oversight that provided the opportunity to question everything. Science came to be in this age, and the discoveries that were made by these men with the tools they had available and devised for themselves are still relevant today.
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LibraryThing member Yiggy
As science progresses, our views about humanity and our place in the world are constantly in flux. This was just as true in history as if is for us today, colorfully illustrated by Carl Zimmer. Following developments stretching back to ancient views on medicine and the human body, through the
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enlightenment all the way to modern day MRI machines, pulling back the curtain on the brain and the soul. If you hold to old notions of the soul and feel firm in your facts, you'll see that commonly held conventions have changed radically from old ones as science uncovers further natural truths. A decent read for perspective for neuroscience students and lay people alike. Show Less
LibraryThing member co_coyote
This book is a fascinating history of what the scientific world looked like in the late 1600's. I don't think I ever realized so completely how many of our breakthroughs in medicine and physiology came from “scientists” who were so deeply steeped and interested in alchemy. A great many of these
Most interesting to me were the descriptions of experiments these practitioners of the medical arts came up with to understand the human body. How does one, for example, prove that the blood circulates in the body? Or that something in the blood (invisible to everyone then as now) was required for life? Fascinating reading by an excellent science writer.
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men (few women are mentioned) were the snake-oil salesmen of their day. And, in truth, many of these ideas of spirits and fires and ferments happening in the blood and other organs of the body and not far from the truth, and no more fanciful or magical then some of our own ideas in developmental biology today. (See The Making of the Fittest by Sean B. Carroll, for example.)Most interesting to me were the descriptions of experiments these practitioners of the medical arts came up with to understand the human body. How does one, for example, prove that the blood circulates in the body? Or that something in the blood (invisible to everyone then as now) was required for life? Fascinating reading by an excellent science writer.
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LibraryThing member breic2
This is the story of Thomas Willis, who in the seventeenth century was the first to understand (or, at least, to conjecture) the importance of the brain as the body's control center. At the same time, the book follows the tumultuous history of England and other experiments by Willis's circle---for
Willis is an interesting character, for while he based his studies on careful dissections of patients (from all classes) and animals, his medical treatments were mostly the same traditional ones---just justified with new logic. He also had to juggle to stay on the right side of the church, which did not like purely mechanistic explanations for reason. Willis proposed that every person has a sensitive soul and a rational soul, both located in the brain but the latter not being material and surviving the body's death.
Zimmer can be a good writer, and there are several interesting stories here. He overstates Willis's importance, but that is to be expected. He claims that people are pleased to learn of depression's physical causes because that means it is separate from the self. He is trying to argue that Willis's separation of the sensitive and rational souls is deeply embedded in modern culture (because we are relieved that depression is a disease of the sensitive soul), and that this false dichotomy---mental versus physical, the self versus the brain---causes grief and confusion. In fact, the real reason for this relief is that it makes depression something treatable. It is still interesting that Willis, being unwilling to accept purely mystical explanations for rationality, was among the first to confront these separations.
More importantly, the book cries out for editing; it should be half as long.
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example, the study of respiration and blood circulation. Willis is an interesting character, for while he based his studies on careful dissections of patients (from all classes) and animals, his medical treatments were mostly the same traditional ones---just justified with new logic. He also had to juggle to stay on the right side of the church, which did not like purely mechanistic explanations for reason. Willis proposed that every person has a sensitive soul and a rational soul, both located in the brain but the latter not being material and surviving the body's death.
Zimmer can be a good writer, and there are several interesting stories here. He overstates Willis's importance, but that is to be expected. He claims that people are pleased to learn of depression's physical causes because that means it is separate from the self. He is trying to argue that Willis's separation of the sensitive and rational souls is deeply embedded in modern culture (because we are relieved that depression is a disease of the sensitive soul), and that this false dichotomy---mental versus physical, the self versus the brain---causes grief and confusion. In fact, the real reason for this relief is that it makes depression something treatable. It is still interesting that Willis, being unwilling to accept purely mystical explanations for rationality, was among the first to confront these separations.
More importantly, the book cries out for editing; it should be half as long.
Show Less
LibraryThing member hailelib
An interesting book on early research into the brain focusing primarily on the work of Thomas Willis and his 'circle'. While it took me a couple of chapters to really get involved with this book it turned out to be interesting not just for the work on the brain but for the information about the
Recommended.
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practice of medicine in the 1600's and how our ideas about the human soul have changed over time.Recommended.
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LibraryThing member MartinBodek
I hadn't even thought this was a topic worth reading about, but a friend recommended this book and I had a peek. I was drawn in immediately and amazed at the history I didn't know and was never taught! What's interesting is that it takes about 120 pages to finally get to the gist of the actual
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subject of the book, but those 120 pages are filled with wonderful detail of English history, war, medicine, religion, superstition and science. The story of the protagonist is then told over another 120 or so pages, before giving way to a beautiful educational history-filled coda. What an enlightening book. What an experience! Show Less
LibraryThing member neurodrew
Subtitle: The Discovery of the Brain and How It Changed the World
The first two chapters are a quick but readable history of the whereabouts of the embodied mind as imagined by the ancient Greeks, Aristotle, Aquinas, and other philosophers. Until the 1600's, most doctors thought the ventricles were
The first two chapters are a quick but readable history of the whereabouts of the embodied mind as imagined by the ancient Greeks, Aristotle, Aquinas, and other philosophers. Until the 1600's, most doctors thought the ventricles were
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air filled and the source of spirits animating the muscles, while the rest of the brain matter was "a useless bowl of curds". This opinion was partly due to the the lack of study of human brains, and later, to the autopsy technique that sliced off the skull and brain in sections, without any perservatives. The body of the book is the history of Thomas Willis, and the Oxford Circle, set in the history of King Charles I and the Puritan revolution that followed. William Harvey was a bit older when Willis earned his medical degree, and began to do experimental studies on the brain, but he was revered in the Oxford Circle for his discovery of the circulation of the blood. He also, incidentally, discovered that soaking an organ in alcohol would preserve it for later study. Willis took advantage of this to remove the brain whole, and produce his detailed anatomy, including the circle of blood vessels at the base of the brain. He demonstrated that dye would flow from one carotid to fill the whole brain. His anatomical and experimental prowess, however, did not make him any better at diagnosis and treatment. He was a "pisse-prophet", looking at urine samples for diagnosis, and prescribed bloodletting, and other Galenic remedies, without much success. Nonetheless, he became famous and rich, and served for a time as the court physician to Charles II. This book was rich in detail, and well written, serving as a biography of Willis, an intellectual history of the Oxford circle, and a survey of the late 1600's in Britain. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
320 p.; 9.29 inches
ISBN
0434010464 / 9780434010462