Soul Made Flesh

The untold story of a turning point in modern history--how the brain was discovered to be the seat of human consciousness--from an author The "New York Times" calls "as fine a science writer as we have, in the company of David Quammen and John McPhee."

Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge, is a frequent contributor to Discover, National Geographic, Natural History, Nature, and Science. He is a winner of the Everett Clark Award for science journalism and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Media Award. A John S. Guggenheim Fellow, he has also received the Pan-American Health Organization Award for Excellence in International Health Reporting and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Media Award. His previous books include Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, Parasite Rex, and At the Water's Edge. He lives in Guilford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents Introduction: A Bowl of Curds Chapter One: Hearts and Minds, Livers and Stomachs • Greeks explore the soul, puzzle over the brain, and embrace the heart • Christians build a soul from ancient parts • Natural philosophy is born and anatomy becomes a sacred art • Vesalius discovers monkeys where men once stood • The Greeks are transformed, the soul questioned Chapter Two: World Without Soul • Anatomy of the cosmos • Galileo's new sky • Marin Mersenne makes the world a machine • Pierre Gassendi sanctifies the atom • Descartes's anatomy of clear ideas • The human body as earthen machine • The soul climbs into its cockpit • An arrest • The perfect argument • The ice queen makes Descartes an offer • The captive leaves its prison Chapter Three: Make Motion Cease • Thomas Willis with the beasts of the field • Protestants and Puritans • The divine right of kings and the complaints of Parliament • God and Aristotle at Oxford • Servant and alchemist • Mystical medicine comes to England Chapter Four: The Broken Heart of the Republic • Charles I stumbles toward war • Fever swings its scythe • Portrait of a physician as a young man • Willis fights for his king • Oxford dark and nasty • William Harvey under siege • Harvey at the school of Aristotle • Harvey finds the soul in the blood and says little about the brain • Harvey discovers the circle of blood • Oliver Cromwell tightens the noose • Surrender to madness Chapter Five: Pisse-Prophets Among the Puritans • Thomas Willis returns • Medicine in the marketplace • Ferments dissolve the four humors • The Puritans demand an oath • The Oxford Experimental Philosophy Club • William Petty: From Thomas Hobbes's mouth to Thomas Willis's ear • Charles becomes a martyr to the people • England the republic • The madness of defeat • The Miraculous Case of Anne Greene, or A Clock Reset • William Petty measures the soul of a nation • Willis hosts an illegal church Chapter Six: The Circle of Willis • William Harvey comes out of retirement • Thomas Willis searches for the agents of fever • The Experimental Philosophy Club fights for its life and for respectability • Hobbes as politician and neurologist • Robert Boyle gives shape to the New Science Chapter Seven: Spirits of Blood, Spirits of Air • Willis stirs up a ferment of atoms • A crude dream of the brain • Cromwell uprooted • Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke pump away the soul • Christopher Wren, surgeon and injector • The return of the king Chapter Eight: A Curious Quilted Ball • The Church of England meets its less than divine leader • Thomas Willis becomes hero of a nation • "I addicted myself to the opening of heads" • Willis discovers a doctrine of the nerves • The Royal Society Chapter Nine: Convulsions • The lady with a migraine • Convulsions in the year of plague and fire Chapter Ten: The Science of Brutes • From Oxford to London • Richard Lower transfuses blood into a madman • Lower and Hooke discover Willis's mistake in the lungs of dogs • Willis constructs a doctrine of the soul • Madness explained • Thomas Willis avoids Hobbes's fate Chapter Eleven: The Neurologist Vanishes • A final book by Thomas Willis and a ridiculously sumptuous funeral • How John Locke buried his teacher • Robert Boyle sees the future before he dies and is not consoled Chapter Twelve: The Soul's Microscope • A long journey forward • The soul as information • Lightning in a nerve • The wisdom of the reflex • Neurologists read the brain • MRI and the module • The networked mind • The able animal soul • Emotion with reason, not versus • Steel syrup and Prozac • The self anatomized • The social brain • Morals and neurons • Lady Conway and Dr. Willis meet again Dramatis Personae Notes References Acknowledgments Index