1600 - 1700

1601 - Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente publishes Tractatus de Oculo Visusque Organo describing the correct location of the lens relative to the iris
1604 - Johannes Kepler describes inverted retinal image
1609 - J. Casserio publishes first description of mammillary bodies
1611 - Lazarus Riverius textbook describing impairments on consciousness published
1621 - Robert Burton publishes The Anatomy of Melancholy about depression
1623 - Benito Daca de Valdes publishes the first book on vision testing and eyeglass-fitting
1641 - Franciscus de la Boe Sylvius describes fissure on the lateral surface of the brain (Sylvian fissure)
1644 - Giovanni Battista Odierna describes the microscopic appearance of the fly eye in L'Occhio della Mosca
1649 - Rene Descartes describes pineal as control center of body and mind
1650 - Franciscus de la Boe Sylvius describes a narrow passage between the third and fourth ventricles (the aqueduct of Sylvius)
1658 - Johann Jakof Wepfer theorizes that a broken brain blood vessel may cause apoplexy (stroke)
1661 - Thomas Willis describes a case of meningitis
1662 - Rene Descartes De homine is published (He died in 1650)
1664 - Thomas Willis publishes Cerebri anatome (in Latin)
1664 - Thomas Willis describes the eleventh cranial nerve (accessory nerve)
1664 - Gerardus Blasius discovers and names the "arachnoid"
1665 - Robert Hooke details his first microscope
1667 - Robert Hooke publishes Micrographia
1668 - l'Abbe Edme Mariotte discovers the blind spot
1670 - William Molins names the trochlear nerve
1673 - Joseph DuVerney uses experimental ablation technique in pigeons
1681 - English edition of Thomas Willis' Cerebri anatome is published
1681 - Thomas Willis coins the term Neurology
1684 - Raymond Vieussens publishes Neurographia Universalis
1684 - Raymond Vieussens uses boiling oil to harden the brain
1686 - Thomas Sydenham describes a form of chorea in children and young adults
1695 - Humphrey Ridley describes the restiform body
1695 - Humphrey Ridley publishes The Anatomy of the Brain
1696 - John Locke writes Essay Concerning Human Understanding
1697 - Joseph G. Duverney introduces the term "brachial plexus"
 
Thomas Willis

Image courtesy of the Blocker History of Medicine Collections, Moody Medical Library, Univ. Texas Med. Branch, Ga