1642 WIRSUNG, Johann Georg (1589 – 1643)

Figura ductus cuiusdam cum multiplicibus suis ramulis noviter in pancreate in diversis corporibus humanis observati.

Wirsung, assistant to the celebrated German anatomist Johann Vesling, discovered the excretory duct of the pancreas named for him in 1642. To announce his discovery, Wirsung chose the extremely unusual method of publi…

GMN 7879 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10051

1656 WHARTON, Thomas (1614 – 1673)

Adenographia: sive, glandularum totius corporis descriptio.

Wharton described the duct of the submaxillary salivary gland (“Wharton’s duct”). He described the thyroid more accurately than his predecessors, naming it. He also described “Wharton’s jelly” of the umbilical cord (p…

GMN 1116 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1196

1818 –1822 GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE, Étienne (1772 – 1844)

Philosophie anatomique. Tome Premier. Des organes respiratoires sou le rapport de la détermination et de l'identité de leur pièces osseuses. Avec figures de 116 nouvelles preparations d'anatomie. [Tome Deuxième]. Des monstruosités humaines, ouvrage contenant une classification des monstres; la description et la comparaison des principaux genres; une histoire raisonnée des phénomènes de la monstruosité et des faits primitifs qui la produisent; des vues nouvelles touchant la nutrition du foetus et d'autres circonstrances de son développement....Avec figures des détails anatomiques. 2 vols.

The elder Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire is credited with coining the word teratology, and was the first seriously to attempt the experimental production of anomalies, by manipulating chick eggs. See T. Cahn, La vie et l'oeuv…

GMN 534.57 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1811

1832 COOPER, Sir Astley Paston (1768 – 1841)

The anatomy of the thymus gland.

Cooper, the most popular surgeon in London during the early part of the 19th century, was connected with both Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals. Among his best works is his description of the thymus; he described the “…

GMN 1119 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1224

1835 BRESCHET, Gilbert (1784 – 1845); ROUSSEL DE VAUZEME, Augustin

Nouvelles recherches sur la structure de la peau.

Beschet emphasized "the relevance of anatomic investigation to dermatologic problems" (Crissey and Parish, Dermatology and syphilology of the nineteenth century, 117). In this book the authors first described the anat…

GMN 14105 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16416

1845 HUXLEY, Thomas Henry (1825 – 1895)

On a hitherto undescribed structure in the human hair sheath.

“Huxley’s layer” and “membrane” of the root sheath of hair follicles.

GMN 412 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/935

1869 LANGERHANS, Paul (1847 – 1888)

Beiträge zur mikroskopischen Anatomie der Bauchspeicheldrüse. Inaugural-Dissertation.

First account of the islets of Langerhans. In 1893 Édouard Laguesse attached the name of Langerhans to the structures. Langerhans did not suggest any function for them. The book was reprinted with an English translati…

GMN 1009 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/821