Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World

This book is set in a fascinating time of great upheaval in British history. Through a period of Regicide, religious extremism, civil war, plaque and pestilence came a relatively small group of people who, by questioning old and accepted ideas by trusting their own observations, came to lay the foundations of the modern world. There are some well known names mentioned at length here such as Harvey, Boyle , Hooke, Wren and Petty but the main story is about Willis and his study and exploration of the brain and nervous system and concentrates on medical matters, but there is enough meandering to include other scientific/philosophic advances also.It shows the journey these men took from the ideas, still very much prevalent at the start of this period, from the ancients such as Aristotle, Galen, Plato etc. ( Remarkable as they were in their own time) to what seems much more familiar to us.The book is written in a very accessible and easily understood style and reads almost like a novel at times. I would highly recommend it to anybody with any general interest in science and/or history, regardless of their expertise in science or medical knowledge.A thoroughly good read.It was hard to put the book down at times.

Carl Zimmer has done justice in bringing Thomas Willis to life. It is a fascinating read and immaculately researched. Willis was the first person to get to understand the human brain and to see how the different parts had different functions. It is a must for the student of neurology and neuroscience

This is an extraordinary history of a remarkable man and the revolutionary leaps in understanding made by him and his contemporaries. Focusing on Thomas Willis, a seventeenth century scientist, we uncover the fascinating developments made by him towards human anatomy and the brain. Willis was the first to describe and categorise various fevers and illnesses we know today. The key experiments that advanced scientific knowledge are detailed and discoveries of other eminent scientists and philosophers are discussed.Its 300 pages encompass a vast amount of information, setting these discoveries against a backdrop of political and social change. The influence of religious thought and political power is clear to see. Some of this information required me to do a little background reading to gain a coherent understanding of the shift in power from the King to parliament and the impact of the civil wars.I particularly enjoyed the last chapter which highlights the fact that some of Willis's speculations are only really being investigated today with modern technology. We are still only beginning to learn today that mental disorders have a physical effect on the brain itself, something that Willis pondered all those years ago.I liked how the chapters are given an overview so you can keep track of the myriad of developments. A 'dramatis personae' is also included that lists key facts about each individual. The writing is so detailed and paints such a vivid picture, it really does feel as if you are there amongst them making these discoveries for the first time.I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the development of human thought and understanding. It has particular interest to those keen on history, science, politics and philosophy. Or perhaps those who want to immerse themselves in another age as it will definitely stimulate your imagination and enhance your inderstanding. Enjoy!

An excellent review of the important changes in the scientific approach to knowledge as we moved out of the age of alchemy, guess work, and blind belief in the writings of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and into the age of true scientific research as by Davy, Faraday and others in the early 18th century.

I'm sure Zimmer could write about the discovery of the rectal nerve plexus and make it compelling. But instead, he probes the origins of that most mysterious aspect of being human: the existence of the soul and the function of the brain. The story interweaves the lives of anatomists and clergymen, with the politics of the English Civil War, and relates the tale of how the brain came to be understood as the seat of consciousness. A well-told tale of the birth of neuroscience, the experiments conducted, the personalities involved, and the implications of their thoughts. What the mind/consciousness means is still unfolding, but Zimmer makes a stab in the final chapter to relate the ideas of Willis to modern conceptions of how the brain works. Highly recommended title.

Fascinating blend of scientific and historic insight.Beautifully written and thoroughly entertaining as well as enlightening.

This is the story of how we came to understand that life and thought are not beyond a naturalistic, material explanation. It centers on one seventeenth Englishman, Thomas Willis, around whom Zimmer assembles in Oxford a cast of early natural philosophers.Zimmer begins in Greece with Aristotle and continues in Rome with Galen who while they did look at the human body, were too quick to come up with pet theories about biles and humors and present them as facts. For centuries their words ruled science.Then comes Descartes with his mechanical view of the world, presenting a soul that ruled over the body. Descartes questioned the ancients and corrected some of their grosser factual mistakes but he made a few of his own and repeated their methodological error: he did not question his own pet theories enough.The heroes of Zimmer's book are surgeons. Then, surgeons were simple menial workers with a gift for butchery and enough skill to allow their patients to survive their operations. The surgeons eventually gathered the courage to stand up to scholarly doctors and point out that Galen's descriptions were wrong. When challenged, they opened up cadavers and counterchallenged the doctors to show them Galen's fictional body systems.The central hero is Thomas Willis, a country squire turned renowned doctor during the turbulent times of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles II. He had the luck to live near Oxford and displayed a keen interest in anatomy. Willis studied the brain and the nervous system with unprecedented precision. He was one of the founders of the Royal Society, meeting with the likes of Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren. Together, these men studied anatomy so that observations overruled theory whenever one did not agree with the other.Willis's observations, descriptions, and case studies make him the first neurologist. Living in times of religious extremes, this devout man never swore off the primacy of a supernatural soul, but he saw the brain as a tool of the soul and his studies of this organ mechanized our model and led to today's materialistic explanations of consciousness.Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Great book. No delivery problems.

Just good

Very technical slow read.Last 15 pages were excellent.Think about the word green printed in red.Check out his article in National Geoghraphic.