Background

Christopher Merret was born on February 16, 1614, in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom to the family of Christopher Merret.

Education

In 1632 Christopher Merret matriculated at Gloucester Hall, Oxford (which later became Worcester College). He received his Bachelor of Arts from Oriel College in 1635, and his Bachelor of Medicine and Doctor of Medicine from Gloucester Hall in 1636 and 1643 respectively.

Career

Merret commenced practice in London about 1640. Admitted as a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1651, he became the first keeper of their new library and museum given by William Harvey and compiled its first printed catalog (1660). The founding of the Royal Society (1660), of which he was an original member, provided an outlet for Merret’s varied interests.

In 1662, at the suggestion of Robert Boyle and the instigation of the Royal Society, Merret translated Antonio Neri’s L’arte vetraria (1612), a pioneer work. By adding his own extensive observations on the construction of glassmaking furnaces, the types of glass being manufactured in England, and the raw materials used, Merret gave considerable impetus to glassmaking in England and other European countries.

William How’s Phytologia (1650) was still in demand when it went out of print. At the publisher’s request, Merret wrote Pinax rerum naturalium Britannicarum (1666) to replace it. Since he was no fieldworker but a sedentary and inexpert naturalist, he enlisted all the help possible and revealed a wide knowledge of the relevant literature by giving more precise references than his predecessors had. By his own admission, the list was imperfect (“inchoatus”). Although the large botanical section, with over 1,400 species and synonyms from Gerard and John Parkinson, was soon superseded, the section on mammals and birds is important as the first attempt to construct a British fauna.

On 17 December 1662 Merret presented Some Observations concerning the Ordering of Wines to the Royal Society. In this paper, unearthed by wine writer Tom Stevenson, Merret describes winemakers adding quantities of sugar and molasses to make the wines drink brisk and sparkling. Today this would be called the méthode champenoise, the addition of liqueur de tirage in order to stimulate a secondary fermentation that produces the bubbles in sparkling wine.

When the College of Physicians was destroyed by fire in 1666, Merret saved and looked after 150 books; but the College argued that since they now had no library, they had no need of a keeper. The last years of Merret’s life were clouded by the consequent dispute, which cost him his fellowship (1681), allegedly for nonattendance. His only medical publications were those that contributed to the war of mutual denigration between the physicians and the apothecaries.

Achievements

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  Merret is remembered and praised for his contribution to inventing the technology of the production of sparkling wine and producing the first lists of British birds and butterflies. Although Merret appears to have been more interested in making glass than in making wine, producers of English sparkling wine such as Ridgeview have been quick to use his name as a generic term to describe their wines. The name Merretia was given to a group of unicellular algae by S. F. Gray.

Works

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  • A Short View of the Frauds and Abuses Committed by Apothecaries As well in Relation to Patients, as Physicians: And Of the only Remedy thereof by Physicians making their own Medicines 1670
  • The Art of Glass Wherein Are Shown the Wayes to Make and Colour Glass, Pastes, Enamels, Lakes, and Other Curiosities 1662
  • A short reply to the postscript, of H.S. Shewing his many falsities in matters of fact; the impertinencies of his promised answers to some physicians that have written against the apothecaries 1670
  • Pinax rerum naturalium Britannicarum, continens vegetabilia, animalia et fossilia in hac insula reperta inchoatus 1666
  • New experiments and observations touching cold, or, An experimental history of cold, begun to which are added an examen of antiperistasis, and an examen of Mr. Hobs's doctrine about cold 1683
  • Self-conviction, or, An Enumeration Of The Absurdities Railings Against The College And Physicians In General But More Especially The Writers Falsities In Matters Of Fact 1670
  • Two discourses by Walter Charleton 1675
  • A Collection of Acts of Parliament, Charters, Trials at Law, and Judges Opinion Concerning Those Grants to the Colledge of Physicians London, Taken from the Originals, Law-Books, and Annals, Commanded by Sir Edward Alston Kt., President 1660
  • An Account of Several Observables in Lincolnshire Not Taken Notice of in Camden, Volume 19 1695

Membership

Christopher Merret was a member of the Royal Society and Royal College of Physicians.

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  Royal Society , England

  1663 - 1695

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  Royal College of Physicians , England

  1651 - 1695

Connections

Christopher Merret had married Ann Jenour of Kempsford by 1640. They had a son Christopher.

Father:

Christopher Merret

Wife:

Ann Jenour

Son:

Christopher Merret

Acquaintance:

Robert Boyle

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography: Volumes 9 & 10
  1980