Francis Glisson (1597–1677) was a highly successful physician, so famous in London that in 1668 he was consulted along with Ashley Cooper and Thomas Sydenham to advise whether the future Earl of Shaftesbury should undergo surgery to drain a perihepatic abscess. In 1650, he published a comprehensive account of infantile rickets (“Glisson’s disease”). Four years later, in his famous 1654 masterpiece Anatomia hepatitis, he provided the initial description of the capsule that envelops the liver, based on his studies of the ox liver.

The capsule that bears Glisson’s name is a dense, fibrous layer that surrounds the liver and extends inward to form a sheath around the vessels that penetrate the organ. It continues within the liver parenchyma along the branches of the portal vein, hepatic artery, and bile ducts, providing a scaffolding that supports these structures. The capsule protects the liver against infection and external trauma and plays a role in the liver’s sensory system. Although its parenchyma itself lacks pain receptors, the stretching or inflammation of Glisson’s capsule—as seen in conditions such as hepatitis or liver abscesses—can cause significant pain, often in the right upper quadrant or in the shoulder as referred pain. Because the capsule contains lymphatic vessels and nerves, it plays a vital role in the body’s immune response to injury. During surgical intervention, particularly liver resections or transplantation, surgeons must navigate around or within the capsule, making the knowledge of its anatomy essential.

Francis Glisson was born in Rampisham in Dorsetshire in 1597 as the second of nine boys, and he commenced his higher education several years later than most others of his generation. At age twenty, he enrolled at the Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge, where he received his BA in 1621, MA in 1624, and MD in 1634. He had broad academic interests that spanned the fields of anatomy, physiology, and medicine. In 1635, he was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine at Cambridge and set up a medical practice. However, he later moved to London as the situation was too unstable because of the conflict between the Royalists and the Puritans. In London, he became a successful consultant, a founding member of the Royal Society of London, and President of the Royal College of Physicians. Toward the end of his life, he became involved in theoretical disputes about the irritability of tissues with specific reference to the gastrointestinal tract, a concept that continued to be argued over for many years.

Further reading

1. Francis Glisson (1597-1677). JAMA May 18, 1963:584.
2. Nova et Vetera: A medical roll of honor. BMJ Feb 6, 1909:351.
3. Ruhrah J. Francis Glisson (1597-1677). American Journal of Diseases of Children 1929;37:832.
4. Black J. A treatise of the rickets. BMJ Apr 12, 2008;336:837.