John Mayow | Experiments, Respiration, Oxygen | Britannica (original) (raw)

Quick Facts

Born:

May 24, 1640, London, Eng.

Died:

October 1679, London (aged 39)

John Mayow (born May 24, 1640, London, Eng.—died October 1679, London) was an English chemist and physiologist who, about a hundred years before Joseph Priestley and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, identified spiritus nitroaereus (oxygen) as a distinct atmospheric entity.

Though a doctor of law from the University of Oxford (1670), Mayow made medicine his profession. His writings include a remarkably correct anatomical description of respiration and a recognition of the role of oxygen in the combustion of metals.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.