PREFACE 



•" John Mayow, descended from a genteel family of 

 his name, living at Bree, in Cornwall, was born in the 

 parish of St Dunstan's in the West, in Fleet Street, 

 London," in May 1643. His father's name was 

 William and his mother's EHzabeth. He was 

 received as a commoner of Wadham College, Oxford, 

 on 3rd April 1658, and admitted a scholar on 23rd 

 September 1659. Upon the recommendation of 

 Henry Coventry, one of the Secretaries of State and a 

 former fellow of the college, he was elected to a 

 fellowship at All Souls' College on 3rd November 

 i66o. He graduated B.C.L. on 30th May 1665 and 

 D.C.L. on 5th July 1670. He also "studied physic, 

 and became noted for his practice therein, especially 

 in the summer time, in the city of Bath." He died 

 *^ in an apothecary's house, bearing the sign of the 

 Anchor, in York Street, near Covent Garden, within 

 the liberty of Westminster ... in the month of 

 September 1679, and was buried in the Church of 

 St Paul, Covent Garden." 



These particulars, derived from Wood's Athencs 

 Oxonienses^ 1722, and the notice by Hartog in the 

 Dictionary of National Biography^ convey practi- 

 cally all we have been able to find as to the personal 

 history of Mayow. On 30th November 1678 he was 



