ABSTRACT
From about 1612 Thomas Harriot suffered increasingly from a polyp or growth in the left nostril, which gradually expanded, causing great discomfort. His normal physician at that time was probably Dr Peter Turner, a well-known London doctor who was also a member of parliament and who was retained by Harriot's patron the Earl of Northumberland. Theodore de Mayerne was indeed a Huguenot, the son of a convert father, Louis Turquet, who had endured persecution and poverty for his faith. Throughout his life Mayerne venerated his father, who saw to it that he was educated in the Calvinist tradition: at school in Geneva, and at the university of Heidelberg. The field in which Theodore de Mayerne showed his independence was his chosen profession of medicine. In his 44 years in England he would become, perhaps, the most famous physician in Europe: 'ce grand flambeau de la medecine', as one continental admirer called him.
