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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Wilhelm His Jr.

Published: Monday, August 12, 2013 07:00 | Written by: Efrain A. Miranda, Ph.D. | Hits: 4741

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.

Wilhelm His Jr.
Wilhelm His Jr.

Wilhelm His Jr. (1863-1934). Also known as Wilhelm His the Younger, was born in Switzerland in the city of Basel. His father was a well-known and famous anatomist by the same name who worked at the University of Basel. Wilhelm His Jr. studied in several universities, including Leipzig, Strasbourg, Bern, and Geneva. He received his medical degree from the University of Leipzig in 1889.

Although not an anatomist, his 1893 single and most brilliant contribution to the eventual understanding of the conduction system of the heart was the discovery and description of a muscular bundle that connected the atrial septum with the ventricular septum. Until that moment it was known that no muscles crossed from the atria to the ventricles, leading anatomists and physiologists to wonder how does the heart contract.  

In his article His states "after long search I have succeeded in finding a muscle bundle which unites the auricular and ventricular septal walls, and which, up to now, has escaped observation because of incomplete exposure, for it is visible in its entire extent only when the septa are cut exactly in their longitudinal direction".

What is interesting is that His not only found the bundle that today honors his name, but he included in that description the atrioventricular node, the actual structure that crosses the atrioventricular connective tissue barrier known as the "skeleton of the heart". The AV node was later to be clearly identified and researched by Sunao Tawara (1873 - 1952).

Dr. His continued his research on gout and joint diseases. He became a German citizen and joined the German army as a consulting physician. He retired in 1932 and died in 1934.

Although Wilhelm His Jr. did not discover or described the esophagogastric angle, in 1906 JD Cunningham started calling this angle the "Angle of His" in honor of Wilhelm His Jr. This eponym has stayed with us until today.

Sources:
1. "Wilhelm His Jr." JAMA. 1964;187(6):453-454
2. "His, Jr., W.: The Activity of the Embryonic Human Heart and Its Significance for the Understanding of the Heart Movement in the Adult" Arb Med Klin Leipzig, pp 14-49, 1893; Bast, TH,Gardner, WD trans: J Hist Med 4:289-318, 1949
3. "Wilhelm His, Jr. and the Bundle of His" Bast, TH, Gardner, WD J Hist Med All Sci; 1949; 4, (2) 170 -187
4. Firkin BG (1996) Dictionary of medical eponyms.London: Parthenon Publishing Group, 181
Original image in the public domain, courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.