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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The first use of anesthesia in surgery


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.

When I started the sidebar segment entitled "A Moment in History", I thought that it would be only biographical articles. On January 28, 2014, traveling from Austin TX to Cincinnati I was reading a wonderful book: "Masters of the Scalpel" (1962) by Sarah R. Riedman Ph.D. In one of the chapters Dr. Riedman writes about the first use of anesthesia in Surgery. Because of the author's style, as I read the following excerpt, I found myself wondering how it would have felt to be there while history was being made:

"On the morning of October 16, 1846, all but one of the principals were ready in the amphitheatre: Dr. Warren, the senior surgeon, his assistants and strong-armed men who were to hold the patient down, the students, and other spectators were waiting; the patient was brought in, pale with fright.

There was no turning back: everything was set for the removal of the tumor on his jaw. Only Morton (Dr. William T. G. Morton) had not arrived. Dr. Warren was ready to proceed without him, announcing to the onlookers: "As Dr. Morton has not arrived, I presume he is otherwise engaged." And he was - putting the finishing touches on his inhaler in the instrument maker's shop.

William T. G. Morton. Image courtesy of the National Library of Medicine
Just as the skeptical audience burst into laughter at Dr. Warren's remark, Morton appeared. The operation was held up for a few minutes while Morton prepared a sponge soaked in ether which he placed in the inhaling globe, temporarily corked.

As he came forward to the operating table on which the patient was strapped as always before an operation, Dr. Warren turned to Morton, saying: "Well sir! Your patient is ready."

But Morton wished to gain the patient's confidence. Pointing to Eben Frost ( A patient from whom Dr. Morton had removed a tooth under ether) who in gratitude had come along to the hospital, he said to the pale man: "There is a man who has been operated on under this chemical, and can tell you that it worked." Frost gladly complied.

"Are you afraid?" Morton asked the patient. Whether from courage or confidence, the patient replied, "No, I will do as you tell me."

Morton then put the neck of the flask to the patient's mouth, instructing him to breathe. Slowly the patient went under, his arms and legs jerking in a way probably familiar to frequenters at "ether frolics." As yet no one suspected what the chemical was. After several minutes, the patient was asleep and relaxed. It was now Morton's cue in the drama, as he turned to Dr. Warren. "Sir, your patient is ready."

Warren made the incision. He, like the witnesses, was ready for the bloodcurdling screams so familiar in the operating room. But the patient uttered not a sound.

The operation over, the patient slowly regained consciousness. When questioned by Morton, he readily admitted having felt no pain.

Dr. Warren then broke the silence with the famous words: "Gentlemen, this is no humbug!" And Dr. Henry J. Bigelow: "I have seen something today that will be heard round the world."

The first page of a new chapter in the story of surgery was turned that day."

While looking out the airplane window to the passing cities below, I thought about the millions of people that had been affected by this "Moment in History" and that it needed to be shared and retold to the generations to follow. Dr. Miranda.

Biographical note: Sarah Regal Riedman was born on April 20, 1902 in Kishiniev, Rumania and became a U.S. citizen in 1918.  In 1926, she received a bachelor's degree from Hunter College, followed by a Masters of Science degree from New York University in 1928. In 1935, Ms. Riedman received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. She taught at Hunter College from 1926 to 1930, and at Brooklyn College from 1930 to 1952. At Brooklyn College, she was an instructor, and later an assistant professor of biology.

Ms. Riedman began writing science books for children in 1947, with the publication of "How Man Discovered His Body". Between 1947 and 1983, she wrote or co- wrote approximately forty books. We have not been able to find further information on her. Any contribution to her biography will be most welcome.

Original image courtesy of NLM

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