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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2017 AACA Meeting (5)

Published: Monday, July 24, 2017 07:00 | Hits: 2290

2017 AACA Meeting – Thursday, July 20

This is the 2017 Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) in Minneapolis, MN. This 34th meeting of the association, gets together over 300 clinical anatomists, anatomists, physicians, and students from all over the world.

Last day of the meeting! In the morning, there was a poster session and a platform session dedicated to the neck and lower limb.  Now, I must confess that as much as I wanted to attend the meeting, I decided to go somewhere else and skip the morning session… I should feel bad about this, but I do not!!

With two other attendees to the AACA meeting I went to the Wangensteen Historical Library which has a collection of over 80,000 rare books.  We met with the Curator, Lois Hendrickson, Christopher Herzberg, and Emily Beck.

First, we visited the current exhibit, “Medical Exchanges: Mapping the Human Body in Japan and China” with incredible books, medical posters, and artifacts referencing anatomy, surgery, acupuncture, botanical remedies, etc. Then we went into the reading room where they already had a display of books on anatomy, surgery, histology, etc.

We spent at least four hours reading and admiring these books and the knowledge they contain. One of our discussions was on the fact that today there is a great deal of information “lost” in these books because they have not been digitized, or because many are written in languages which the average researched does not master.

For those who read this blog, you know that I am collector of antique medical books and the opportunity to be at this incredible library was unique. There were so many books that is difficult to list. Authors like Bidloo, Hooke, Verhayen, Mascagni, Vesalius, etc. Books like “De Muto Cordis”, “Micrographia”, “De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Libri Septem”, and “De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Epitome” are some of the jewels that we were able to admire.

Personally, the opportunity to spend time with these books was invaluable. There are only 13 known “De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Epitome” books in the world. It is priceless and who knows what its monetary value would be if any makes it to the antiquarian market. Being able to read, admire and touch this book was the “epitome” of my time at the library (pun intended).

Unfortunately, for some unknown reason I lost all the pictures I took of this occasion, so I hope to get some from the colleagues that went to the library with me.

Back at the AACA Meeting, we had a Medical Terminology Committee meeting, followed by the AACA Business Meeting, and then the closing banquet with the presentation of Awards. The last order of business was the presidential transition. Neil Norton, PhD ended his presidential tenure with the closing of the 2017 AACA Meeting and Marios Loukas, MD, PhD begins his two-year as President of the AACA.

Next year the AACA meeting will be in Atlanta! See you there!
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