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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Václav Treitz

Published: Tuesday, April 05, 2016 07:00 | Written by: Efrain A. Miranda, Ph.D. | Hits: 9896

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.

Dr. Václav Treitz
Dr. Václav Treitz

UPDATED: Dr. Václav Treitz (1819 - 1872). Also known as Wenzel Treitz, Dr. Václav Treitz was born in Hostomice, Bohemia. He attended the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague studying humanities and medicine, receiving his medical degree in 1846. Treitz started postgraduate work at the Vienna General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus), where Joseph Skoda (1805-1881) was a proponent of “therapeutic nihilism” which stated that “drug treatment usually does more harm than good”, so a minimalistic or even pessimistic approach to diseases was used.

Large numbers of women at this hospital died of “puerperal fever” an postpartum uterine infection due to contamination by the unwashed hands of physicians and utter lack of cleanliness (septic technique had not been yet described). It was during Treitz’s time at the Vienna General Hospital that Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818 – 1865) stated his initial observations on asepsis. Treitz later became a follower of Semmelweis’ and Lister’s teachings and techniques.

In 1852 Treitz was appointed Professor of Pathological Anatomy in the Jagellonian University in Prague.

In 1853 he published a paper ("Ueber einen neuen Muskel am Duodenum des Menschens" ) describing a new muscle he discovered at the duodenojejunal junction, later to be known as the eponymic “muscle of Treitz”; the fold of peritoneum over the muscle of Treitz is known today as the "ligament of Treitz". Treitz also described a paraduodenal retroperitoneal hernia that occurs at the paraduodenal recess, just lateral to the ligament of Treitz.

A staunch proponent of Czechoslovakian independence and language, Treitz was publicly attacked for his medical theories and nationalistic beliefs. Isolated and depressed, Treitz committed suicide in 1872.

The article on the "Ligament of Treitz" is the most popular article in "Medical Terminology Daily" with over 152 thousand hits!

Sources:
1. "Václav Treitz (1819-1872): Czechoslovakian Pathoanatomist and Patriot” Fox, RS; Fox, CG; Graham, WP. World J. Surg. 9, 361-366, 1985
2. "Treitz of the ligament of Treitz". Haubrich, W S. (2005) Gastroenterology, 128 (2), 279
3. "Preserving Treitz's muscle in hemorrhoidectomy". Gemsenj?ger, E Diseases of the Colon & Rectum (1982), 25 (7), p. 633.
4. “The Muscle Of Treitz And The Plica Duodeno-Jejunalis” Crymble, PT. The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2598 (1910), 1156-1159

Original image, public domain, courtesy of .