Christopher Merret

Born in 1614 or 1615, he was an English physician and naturalist who studied at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, and later practiced medicine in London. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and was closely connected with the early Royal Society, placing him among the active scientific minds of Restoration England.

He is especially remembered for Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum, an early survey of British plants, animals, and minerals. He also wrote on glassmaking, tin mining, and other practical subjects, showing a wide curiosity about how the natural world worked and how people used it.

A note he published in 1662 has often drawn modern attention because it describes adding sugar to wine to make it sparkle, a remarkably early account of the process behind sparkling wine. He died in 1695, leaving behind the picture of a learned doctor whose interests ranged far beyond medicine alone.