Medical Terminology Daily (MTD) is a blog sponsored by Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. as a service to the medical community. We post anatomical, medical or surgical terms, their meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. Be warned that some of the images used depict human anatomical specimens.

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A Moment in History

Jean-Louis Petit

Jean Louis Petit
(1674 – 1750)

French surgeon and anatomist, Jean Louis Petit was born in Paris in on March 13, 1674.  His family rented an apartment at his house to Alexis Littre (1658 – 1726), a French anatomist. Petit became an apprentice of Littre at seven years of age, helping him in the dissections for his lectures and at an early age became the assistant in charge of the anatomic amphitheater.

Because of Petit’s dedication to anatomy and medicine, in 1690 at the age of sixteen, became a disciple of a famous Paris surgeon, Castel.

In 1692, Petit entered the French army and performed surgery in two military campaigns. By 1693 he started delivering lectures and was accepted as a great surgeon, being invited to the most difficult operations.  In 1700 he was appointed Chief Surgeon of the Military School in Paris and in the same year he received the degree of Master of Surgery from the Faculty of Paris.

In 1715 he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Royal Society of London. He was appointed by the King as the first Director General of the Royal Academy of Surgery when it was founded in 1731.

Petit’s written works are of historical importance.  “Traite des Maladies des Os” ( A Treatise on Bone Diseases);  “Traite des Maladies Chirurgicales et des Operation” (A Treatise on Surgical Diseases and their Operations” This last book was published posthumously in 1774. He also published a monograph on hemorrhage, another on lachrymal fistula, and others.

He was one of the first to perform choIecystotomy and mastoidotomy. His original tourniquet design for amputations saved many in the battlefield and the design of the same surgical instrument today has not changed much since its invention by him.

His name is remembered in the lumbar triangle, also called the "triangle of Petit", and the abdominal hernia that can ensue through that area of weakness, the lumbar hernia or "Petit's hernia".

Sources:
1. “Jean Louis Petit – A Sketch of his Life, Character, and Writings” Hayne, AP San Fran Western Lancet 1875 4: 446-454
2. “Oeuvres compl?tes de Jean-Louis Petit” 1837 Imprimerie de F. Chapoulaud
3. Extraits de l'eloge de Jean-Louis Petit Ius dans Ia seance publique de I' Academie royale de chirurgie du 26 mai 1750” Louis A. Chirurgie 2001: 126 : 475- 81


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Dr. Willem Einthoven


This article is part of the series "A Moment in History" where we honor those who have contributed to the growth of medical knowledge in the areas of anatomy, medicine, surgery, and medical research.To search all the articles in this series, click here.
Dr. Willem Einthoven (1860 - 1927). Einthoven was Dutch, born on 1860 in the city of Semarang in the island of Java. His father was a physician working for the Dutch military. He started his medical studies at the University of Utrecht, Holland. Having developed an interest in ophthalmology and physiology, he developed his medicine doctorate thesis on stereoscopic color vision.

In 1885 Einthoven became a Professor of Physiology at the University of Leiden. Having seen a demonstration of Augustus Waller’s “electrogram” (a device that recorded minute deviations on a mercury column when electrically stimulated) in 1887, he improved it by creating the “string galvanometer”. In 1901 Einthoven published his first recordings of what he called “elektrokardiogramm” (EKG).

The initial device was bulky, heavy, and required the patient to sit with both arms and the left leg in separate buckets of salt water, but it did record the electrical activity of the heart (Click here for an image of one of the first electrocardiographs). Eventually the device was commercialized and history was made. It was Einthoven who used the letter P,Q,R,S, and T in electrocardiography.

In 1924, Willem Einthoven was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology.

Dr. Willem EinthovenOriginal imagecourtesy of "Images from the History of Medicine" at www.nih.gov.
Sources:

1. "Willem Einthoven (1860-1927): father of electrocardiography". Merritt, C. Tan. SY. Singapore Med J 53:(1) 17
2. "Willem Einthoven (1860-1927)" Davies, M; Hollman, A. Heart. 1997 October; 78(4): 324
3. "Willem Einthoven: The development of the human electrocardiogram" Cajavilcaa, C.,Varonb, J.Resuscitation 76:3 2008; 325–328

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