Highmore received his M.D. from Oxford in 1643. One of the founding members of the Royal Society, he was a disciple of Harvey, to whom he dedicated this book. It is the first anatomical textbook to accept Harvey's theory on the circulation of the blood, which is incorporated into the allegorical title page, depicting the human body as a garden. Highmore's work gained Harvey recognition in Britain and abroad. It is divided into three books, following the traditional dissection order of discussing the organs of the three body cavities - the abdomen, thorax, and head. It contains the first descriptions of the antrum of Highmore (the maxillary sinus), and the corpus Highmori (the mediastinal testis). Highmore also wrote a work on hysteria and hypochondria (Oxford, 1660), which provoked a polemic with Thomas Willis.
