Lamy, Guillaume

1. Dates

Born: Coutance, Normany. He may possibly have been born about 1634, but the date is not well supported. He published his last work in 1682

Died: fl

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan:

2. Father

Occupation: No Information

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: French

Career: French

Death: French

4. Education

Schooling: Paris, M.A., M.D.

He studied madicine at Paris, and received his M.D. in 1672 from the Faculty of Medicine at Paris.

He probably had studied philosophy at the University of Paris and had defended a theses in philosophy before 1668. He had the title of Master of Arts.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic (assumed), Heterodox

Bayle, who was not picky, considered him an extreme epciurean.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Natural Philosophy, Medicine

Subordinate: Embryology

His philosophical works include De principiis rerum (1669) and Expication mécanique et physique des fonctions de l'ame sensitive ( 1677).

In 1667 he published two letters in which he denounced the blood transfusion. Between 1675 and 1682 he published three important works, of which the best known is Discours anatomiques (Paris, 1675 and 1685, Brussels, 1679).

He was a passionate mechanist, more a Gassendist than a Cartesian.

His views on generation in terms of two seminal fluids, expressions of early mechanical philosophy and opposed to the discoveries of eggs and ovaries in his own age, were influential later when problems with ovism developed in the 18th century.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Academia, Medicine

His signature "Maistre aux Arts" in a work published in 1668 indicates that he had the right to teach the humanities. His name is included in the list of the honorandorum magistrorum nostrorum signed by the dean of the Faculty of Medine of Paris in 1676. Revelle-Parise says that he was a distinguished professor.

Both Revelle-Parise and NBG assert that he practiced medicine--Revelle-Parise says that he did so with distinction.

8. Patronage

Type: None

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Sources

1. Joseph Henri Revelle-Parise, "Etude biographique: Guillaume Lamy," Gazette medicale de Paris, 3rd ser., 6 (1851), pp.497- 502.
2. Jacques Roger, Les sciences de la vie dans la pensée francaise du XVIII siècle, (Paris, 1963), passim.
3. Nouvelle biographie générale, 29, 293-4.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. H. Busson, La religion des classiques, (Paris, 1948), pp. 147-64.
2. As will appear from the sketch above, not much is known about Lamy the man, other than the books that he published.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.