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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Call for new contributors

Published: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 09:49 | Written by: Efrain A. Miranda, Ph.D. | Hits: 3653

Open letter to friends and colleagues:

I started "Medical Terminology Daily" in October 2012, hosted at my own website, which has been online since 1998. The objective of "Medical Terminology Daily" is to be a service to the medical community, medical students, medical industry, and public in general. We post a workweek daily medical, anatomical, or surgical term, its meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. This last content stays for a week on the sidebar called "A Moment in History" and after a week, it is published as a main body article.

Each week we send a newsletter with a week's worth of articles to those who have subscribed. An example of the newsletter can be seen here.

Initially, I thought this site to be mostly about Clinical Anatomy and Medical Terminology, but the trends of the requests and conversations have created articles on Histology, Pathology, Surgical Procedures and Techniques, History of Surgery, etc. This has taxed me and the few contributors we have.

After almost two years the traffic is very good and now I am looking to expand the group of contributors to the site. I could not do it before because we lacked a good submission system for the articles.  We are now in the final beta testing stage for the submission system.

We are looking to add ten new contributors to the website from different venues in Medical Sciences, including physicians, surgeons, anatomists, and university professors in Basic Medical Sciences. Preferably, all contributors should have graduate and postgraduate studies. Although we do appreciate the interest of students and the public in general, we want to maintain a very high level of professionalism and credibility. If you yourself cannot be a contributor, you may know someone who would qualify. Feel free to forward this letter as needed by clicking on the envelope icon at the top of this article.

I am sure that everybody is busy, but even small contributions are most welcome. Contributors can use the material in this website for their own teaching purposes: all we ask is proper credit where it is due.

If you want to consider participating, first please look at the footer of the "Medical Terminology Daily" website. at  In this footer are the links to the pages that we offer our contributors as well as the guidelines for publication, and the link to access the backend of the website and write an article directly.

Each contributor can do as much or as little as they want, and we offer a page so that you can post a biography, or links to your website.  We have one contributor (not listed yet) that is planning to present this website to his students and have them work on article ideas, so they learn to research as well as to write properly. His plan is to select the three best articles in his class and submit them for publication. The publication of the article with recognition to the author will be another item on the student's CV!

If you want to apply as a contributor, please send a message using the "Contact Us" page in this website with information on your studies, place of work, and how to contact you back. I promise to answer all of the requests. Those who are accepted as contributors will receive their login information as well as a manual to manage the back end of the website.

Your consideration is most appreciated

Sincerely,

Efrain A. Miranda, Ph.D.
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