Nathaniel Henshaw M.D. (baptised 1628 – 1673) was an English physician and original Fellow of the Royal Society.[1]
He was a younger son of Benjamin Henshaw (died 4 December 1631) and his wife Anne, daughter of William Bonham of London; Thomas Henshaw was his elder brother.[2] He first studied medicine at the University of Padua in 1649.[1] He was entered for the physic course at Leyden University on 4 November 1653, proceeded M.D. there, and was admitted M.D. ad eundem at Trinity College, Dublin in the summer term 1664.[2]
On 20 May 1663 Henshaw was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. He practised in Dublin as a physician, but died in London in September 1673, and was buried on 13 September in Kensington Church. His will, dated 6 August 1673, was proved at London on the following 11 September by his sister, Anne Grevys.[2]
Henshaw was author of a treatise Aero-Chalinos (1664)[3] concerned with "fresh air" and its medical value.[4] A second edition (London, 1677) was printed by order of the Royal Society, at a meeting held on 1 March 1677, having been prepared for the press by Thomas Henshaw. It was reviewed in Philosophical Transactions (xii. 834–5) by Henry Oldenburg.[2]
Papers written by Henshaw on saltpetre and gunpowder were strongly attacked by Henry Stubbe.[5]