Richard Lower

Physician and physiologist, born in Tremeer, Cornwall, SW England, UK. He studied at Oxford, and worked with Thomas Willis in London. With Robert Hooke he collaborated in a series of experiments on the role of the lungs in changing the colour of the blood. His Tractatus de corde (1669, Treatise on the Heart) was a major work on pulmonary and cardiovascular anatomy and physiology. He also conducted experiments in blood transfusion.

Richard Lower (1631-1691) was a Cornish physician who played an important part in the development of medical science. His major work, Tractatus de Corde (1669) was concerned with the workings of the heart and lungs, and he experimented with blood transfusion, thus becoming the first Western scientist ever to perform a blood transfusion.

Lower also formed part of an informal research team, performing laboratory experiments at the University of Oxford during the Interregnum.