Jean Fernel

Jean François Fernel (Latinized as Ioannes Fernelius; 1497 – 26 April 1558) was a French physician who introduced the term "physiology" to describe the study of the body's function.

Life He was born in Montdidier and, after receiving his early education at Clermont, he entered the College of Sainte-Barbe, Paris. At first he devoted himself to mathematical and astronomical studies; but from 1534 he gave himself up entirely to medicine, in which he graduated in 1530. His general erudition, and the skill and success with which he sought to revive the study of the old Greek physicians, gained him a reputation, and ultimately the office of physician to the court. His remains were entombed at the Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.

Work

Jean Fernel. Universa medicina. Utrecht: Gijsbert van Zijll en Dirck van Ackersdijck, 1656.

Astronomy and geodesy Fernel's Cosmotheoria (1528) records a determination (arc measurement) of a degree of arc of the meridian, which he made by counting the revolutions of his carriage wheels on a journey between Paris and Amiens. His works on mathematical and astronomical subjects also include Monalosphaerium, sive astrolabii genus, generalis horarii structura et usus (1526), and De proportionibus (1528).

Physiology As a physician and professor of medicine at the Collège de Coenouailles for over 20 years, Fernel is credited with the neologism, physiology, a discipline which became one of the central topics of education and research in the field of medicine. His early understanding of physiology, especially of the brain, was represented by three statements commonly quoted in physiological history: What has been called his "crowning work", Universa Medicina, comprises three parts: the Physiologia (developed from the De naturali parte), the Pathologia, and the Therapeutice.