Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henshaw, Nathaniel

1390132Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 26 — Henshaw, Nathaniel1891Gordon Goodwin

HENSHAW, NATHANIEL, M.D. (d. 1673), physician, younger son of Benjamin Henshaw, ‘one of the captains of the city of London,’ who died 4 Dec. 1631, by his wife Anne, daughter of William Bonham, citizen of London, was entered on the physic line at Leyden on 4 Nov. 1653 (Leyden Students, Index Soc., p. 48), proceeded M.D. there, and was admitted to the same degree at Dublin in the summer term 1664 (Cat. of Graduates in Univ. of Dublin, 1591–1868, p. 267). On 20 May 1663 he was elected F.R.S. (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. Append. iv.). He practised in Dublin, but died in London in September 1673, and was buried on the 13th of that month in Kensington Church (parish register). His will, dated 6 Aug. 1673, was proved at London on the following 11 Sept. by his sister, Anne Grevys (registered in P. C. C. 113, Pye). He is author of a curious little treatise entitled ‘Aero-Chalinos: or a Register for the Air; in five Chapters. 1. Of Fermentation. 2. Of Chylification. 3. Of Respiration. 4. Of Sanguification. 5. That often changing the Air is a friend to health. Also a discovery of a new method of doing it, without removing from one place to another, by means of a Domicil, or Air-Chamber, fitted to that purpose. For the better preservation of Health, and cure of Diseases, after a new Method,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1664. The second edition (12mo, London, 1677) was printed by order of the Royal Society, at a meeting held on 1 March 1676–1677, having been prepared for the press by the author's elder brother, Thomas Henshaw [q. v.] (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 446). It was reviewed in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (xii. 834–5) by Henry Oldenburg.

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