Bartholin

Bartholin, Thomas (Thomas Bartholinus, 1616--1680), known anatomist. At the universities of Leiden, Paris, Montpellier, Padua, and Basel, besides medicine, he studied philosophy, philology, jurisprudence, and archaeology. He became particularly interested in anatomy and in 1641 published a revised edition of his father's anatomy textbook under the title "Anatomia nova." Still in Leiden, B. began his specialized work on the lymphatic system and verification of Harvey's theory of blood circulation. He received his doctorate in medicine from Bauhin in Zurich (1645); returning to his homeland (Denmark), B. first lectured on ethics, mathematics, philology, and finally, in 1648, on anatomy. B. discovered the thoracic lymphatic duct in humans (which had been somewhat earlier discovered by Pecquet in animals) and determined its relationship to the lymphatic and blood vessels. Bartholin owes his fame mainly to his extensive literary work in all sorts of medical fields.