Jacob Benignus
Winsløw, also known as Jacques-Bénigne Winslow (17 April 1669 – 3 April 1760), was a
Danish-born French
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal 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 scien ...
.
Life
Winsløw was born in
Odense
Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...
, Denmark. Later he became a pupil and successor of
Guichard Joseph Duverney, as well as a convert to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, naturalized in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, and finally became professor of anatomy at the
Jardin du Roi
The Jardin des Plantes (, ), also known as the Jardin des Plantes de Paris () when distinguished from other ''jardins des plantes'' in other cities, is the main botanical garden in France. Jardin des Plantes is the official name in the present da ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.
He greatly admired Bishop
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the famous preacher who had been instrumental in his conversion, and changed his first name to that of Bossuet.
Winsløw died in Paris.
Work
His main work, with many translations, was ''Exposition anatomique de la structure du corps humain'', published in 1732. His exposition of the structure of the human body is distinguished for being not only the first treatise of descriptive
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal 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 scien ...
, divested of physiological details and hypothetical explanations foreign to the subject, but for being a close description derived from actual objects, without reference to the writings of previous anatomists. About the same time
William Cheselden in London, the first
Alexander Monro in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, and
Bernhard Siegfried Albinus in
Leiden
Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...
, contributed by their several treatises to render anatomy still more precise as a descriptive science. The ''Osteographia'' of the first-mentioned was of much use in directing attention to the study of the
skeleton and the morbid changes to which it is liable.
In 1742, he addressed the question of the sure signs of death and
premature burial (burial alive), in his thesis "The uncertainty of the
signs of death, and the danger of precipitate interments and dissections". (in French : ''Dissertation sur l'incertitude des signes de la mort, et des enterremens & embaumemens précipités'').
The
omental foramen, which he first described, is still known under the alternative name of "Winslow's foramen".
Jacob Winslow is credited with first documenting the existence of the
foramen spinosum.
See also
*
Guichard Joseph Duverney
*
Hermann Treschow Gartner
*
Jacques-René Tenon
Sources
* Egill Snorrason, ''Anatomen J. B. Winsløw 1669-1760'', Nyt Nordisk Forlag, 1969.
References
External links
* ''Exposition anatomique de la structure du corps humain'' online:
** (1732)
** (1776)
**
Short biographyon
Who Named It?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winslow, Jacob B.
1669 births
1760 deaths
People from Odense
Emigrants from Denmark–Norway
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Danish anatomists
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Winsløw family
Immigrants to France