François Pourfour du Petit (24 June 1664 – 18 June 1741) was a French

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

and surgeon who conducted careful anatomical studies of the human eye. He also conducted early experiments in neurology. Petit was born in Paris and was orphaned at an early age. He studied the classics at the College de Beauvais before studies in Belgium and Germany. He then studied medicine at the University of Montpellier, and afterwards surgery at the

Hôpital de la Charité Hôpital de la Charité (, "Charity Hospital") was a hospital in Paris founded in the 17th century and closed in 1935. History In 1606, Marie de Médicis invited the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God to come to France. The Abbot of Sa ...

in Paris. During this period of time he also attended lectures by

Guichard Joseph Duverney Joseph Guichard Duverney or Joseph-Guichard Du Verney (5 August 1648 – 10 September 1730) was a French anatomist known for his work in comparative anatomy and for his treatise on the ear. The fracture of the iliac wing of the pelvis is some ...

(1648–1730) in anatomy and

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (5 June 165628 December 1708) was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants. Botanist Charles Plumier was his pupil and accompanied him on his voyages. Lif ...

(1656–1708) in

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. Between 1693 and 1713 he was a military physician in the armies of Louis XIV, and after the Peace of Utrecht (1713), he returned to Paris as an eye specialist. He conducted many cataract surgeries using the technique of displacing the lens using a needle and influenced

Jacques Daviel Jacques Daviel (11 August 1696 – 30 September 1762) was a French ophthalmologist credited with originating the first significant advance in cataract surgery since couching was invented in ancient India. Daviel performed the first extracapsula ...

approach to cataract treatment. He made careful measurements and used biometrical approaches to understanding the eye. He was among the first to note changes in the shape of the lens with age. From 1722 to 1741 he was a member of the

Académie Royale des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

: associate member chemist and anatomist in 1722, then resident member anatomist in 1725. Petit is remembered for his detailed anatomical studies of the eye, as well as

physiological Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

research of the sympathetic nervous system. As a military physician, Petit noticed that there was a striking correlation between soldiers' head wounds and

contralateral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

motor effects, which he documented in a 1710 treatise called ''Lettres d’un medecin des hopitaux du roi a un autre medecin de ses amis''. He was able to conduct ablations in dogs and produce similar effects. He performed pioneer investigations on the internal structure of the spinal cord, and gave an early, detailed description of the

decussation of the pyramids In neuroanatomy, the medullary pyramids are paired white matter structures of the brainstem's medulla oblongata that contain motor fibers of the corticospinal and corticobulbar tracts – known together as the pyramidal tracts. The lower limi ...

. He also provided the first clinical description of symptoms of the rare Pourfour du Petit syndrome, which is thought to be closely related to Horner's syndrome, and also known as reverse Horner syndrome because of its clinical features of mydriasis, eyelid retraction and hyperhidrosis.

Associated eponyms

Anatomical features named after Petit include:Who Named It; François Pourfour du Petit
(biographical information and eponyms) * ''Petit's canals'': Also known as ''spatia zonularia'', lymph-filled spaces between the fibers of the

ciliary zonule The zonule of Zinn () (Zinn's membrane, ciliary zonule) (after Johann Gottfried Zinn) is a ring of fibrous strands forming a zonule (little band) that connects the ciliary body with the crystalline lens of the eye. These fibers are sometimes collec ...

at the equator of the

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

of the eye. * ''Petit's sinuses'': Also known as

aortic sinus An aortic sinus, also known as a sinus of Valsalva, is one of the anatomic dilations of the ascending aorta, which occurs just above the aortic valve. These widenings are between the wall of the aorta and each of the three cusps of the aortic valv ...

es, the space between each semilunar valve and the wall of the

aorta The aorta ( ) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries). The aorta distributes ...

References

French ophthalmologists French anatomists Members of the French Academy of Sciences 1664 births 1741 deaths {{France-med-bio-stub