Mayow [Mayouwe, Mayo], John

1. Dates

Born: Bray, near Looe, Cornwall, Dec. 1641 Earlier sources gave various dates from 1640 to 43. McKie found the record of baptism, 21 Dec. 1641.

Died: London, Sept. 1679

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 38

2. Father

Occupation: Gentry

Phillip Mayowe was a member of a well established, substantial Cornish family.

Clearly affluent. Note that Mayow went to Oxford initially as a commoner, although patronage soon moved him into a Fellowship at All Souls.

3. Nationality

Birth: English

Career: English

Death: English

4. Education

Schooling: Oxford, L.D.

Oxford University; initially Wadham, then All Souls in 1660; 1658-1670; B.C.L., 1665; D.C.L., 1670.

The law degrees followed from his place (as a jurist) in All Souls. Mayow's interest was never law; he studied medicine, although he took no degree in medicine.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Anglican

By assumption.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Physiology, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy

Subordinate: Medicine

Mayow is known for his studies of the interrelated problems of atmospheric composition, combustion, and respiration, all involving (for him) the nitro-aerial spirit. His reputation has undergone major ups and downs, but right now, after a period of denigration, he is taken quite seriously.

Tractatus duo, 1668--on respiration and rickets.

Tractatus quinque, 1674--the original two (altered) plus three more on nitro-aerial spirit, fetal respiration, and muscular motion. Mayow described the muscuar actions around the chest cavity that are involved in respiration. The treatise on the nirto-aerial spirit contained an analysis of the Bath waters. The treatises of 1674 expound a general natural philosophy.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Academia, Medicine

He remained a Fellow of All Souls until his death.

Medical practice, 1670-9, primarily in Bath.

According to gossip, Mayow searched for a wealthy woman to marry, was tricked by a false pretense of wealth, and, not long before his death, married a woman with nothing, much to his chagrin.

8. Patronage

Type: Gentry

Owed his Fellowship in All Souls to Henry Coventry. He dedicated Tractatus quinque, 1674, to Coventry, who was then Secretary of State. (I'm not sure what his status was in 1660.)

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Membership: Royal Society

Informal Connections: Friendship with Hooke. Pupil of Thomas Willis or Thomas Millington. Participation in the final stages of the informal Oxford circle of physiologists.

Royal Society, 1678.

Sources

1. Dictionary of National Biography (repr., London: Oxford University Press, 1949-50), 13, 175-7. J.R. Partington, "The Life and Work of John Mayow", Isis, 47 (1956), 217-30, 405-17.
2. Allen G. Debus, "The Paracelsian Aerial Niter", Isis, 55 (1964), 43-61.
3. T.S. Patterson, "John Mayow in Contemporary setting", Isis, 15 (1931) 41-96, 504-46.
4. John F. Fulton, A Bibliography of Two Oxford Physiologists, (Oxford, 1935). (See Oxford Bibliographical Society, Proceedings & Papers, 4 (1934-5), 1-62.) Francis Gotch, Two Oxford Physiologists: Richard Lower (1631- 1691), John Mayow (1643-1679), (Oxford, 1908). Anthony à Wood, Athenae oxonienses (Fasti oxonienses is attached, with separate pagination, to the Athenae), 4 vols. (London, 1813-20), 3, 1199-1200.
5. Robert G. Frank, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists: A Study of Scientific Ideas, (Berkeley, 1980).

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. Henry Guerlac, "John Mayow and the Aerial Nitre, " Actes du septième congrès internationale d'histoire des sciences, (Jerusalem, 1953), 332-49.
2. Walter Boehm, "John Mayow and his Contemporaries," Ambix, 11 (1963), 105-20.

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.